JOHN HOPKINS'S 



NOTIONS 

'A ON 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 
"CONVERSATIONS ON CHEMIS-yRY," 
"POLITICAL ECONOMY,*' &c./ 



'tl^*^XJ^ 



BOSTON: 

ALLEN AND TICKNOR. 

1833. 






I. R. BUTTS; SCHOOL STREET. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The miscellaneous character of the following 
tracts is accounted for by their having been 
written at different periods. Some of them were 
published, with the author's permission, about 
two years ago, by a society established in Gla- 
morganshire for the improvement of the laboring 
classes. It will be obvious to the reader, that it 
is for that rank of life that this little work is 
principally intended. 



9fX 



THE 



RICH AND THE POOR 



A FAIRY TALE. 



In the time of the Fairies, things went on no 
better than they do at present. John Hopkins, 
a poor laborer, who had a large family of chil- 
dren to support upon very scanty wages, ap- 
plied to a Fairy for assistance. " Here am I 
half starving," said he, '• while my landlord rides 
about in a fine carriage ; his children are pam- 
pered with the most dainty fare, and even his 
servants are bedizened with gaudy liveries : in 
a word, rich men by their extravagance, de- 
prive us poor men of bread. In order to gratify 
them with luxuries, we are debarred almost the 
necessaries of life." — '"Tis a pitiable case, 
honest friend," replied the Fairy, '' and I am 
ready to do all in my power to assist you and 
your distressed friends. Shall I, by a stroke 
of my wand, destroy all the handsome equipages, 
fine clothes and dainty dishes, which offend 



6 THE RICH AND THE POOR. 

you?" — "Since you are so very obliging," 
said honest John, in the joy of his heart, " it 
would perhaps be better to destroy all luxuries 
whatever : for, if you confine yourself to those 
you mention, the rich would soon have recourse 
to others ; and it will scarcely cost you more 
than an additional stroke of your wand to do the 
business outright, and get rid of the evil root and 
branch." 

No sooner said than done. The good-natur- 
ed Fairy waved her all-powerful wand, and, won- 
derful to behold ! the superb mansion of the 
landlord shrunk beneath its stroke, and was re- 
duced to an humble thatched cottage. The 
gay colors and delicate textures of the apparel 
of its inhabitants faded and thickened, and were 
transformed into the most ordinary clothing ; 
the green-house plants sprouted out cabbages, 
and the pinery produced potatoes. A similar 
change took place in the stables and coach- 
house ; the elegant landau was seen varying in 
form, and enlarging in dimensions, till it became 
a wagon; while the smart gig shrunk and 
thickened into a plough. The manes of the 
horses grew coarse and shaggy, their coats lost 
all brilliancy and softness, and their legs became 
thick and clumsy : in a word, they were adapt- 
ed to the new vehicles they were henceforward 
to draw. 



THE RICH AND THE POOR. 7 

Honest John was profuse in his thanks, but 
the Fairy stopped him short. " Return to me 
at the end of the week," said she ; " it will be 
time enough for you to express your gratitude 
when you can judge how much reason you have 
to be obliged to me." 

Delighted with his success, and eager to com- 
municate the happy tidings to his wife and fam- 
ily, John returned home. " I shall no longer," 
said he to himself, '' be disgusted with the con- 
trast of the rich and the poor : what they lose 
must be our gain, and we shall see whether 
things will not now go on in a different manner." 
His wife however did not receive him with equal 
satisfaction ; for, on having gone to dress herself 
(it being Sunday) in her best cotton gown, she 
beheld it changed to a homely stuff; and her 
China tea-pot, given her by her landlord's wife, 
and on which she set no small store, though the 
handle was broken, was converted into crockery 
ware ! 

She came with a woful countenance to com- 
municate these sad tidings to her husband. John 
hemmed and hawed, and at length wisely deter- 
mined to keep his own counsel, instead of boast- 
ing of being the author of the changes which had 
taken place. Presently his little boy came in 
crying. " What ails you. Tommy ? " said the 
father, half pettishly and somewhat suspecting 



THE RICH AND THE POOR. 



that he might have caused his tears also. ^' Why, 
daddy," repHed the urchin, " as I was playing at 
battledore with Dick, the shuttlecock flew away 
and was lost, and the battledores turned into two 
dry sticks, good for nothing but to be burnt." 
" Psha ! " cried the father, who was beginning to 
doubt whether he had not done a foolish thing. 
In order to take time to turn over the subject in 
his mind, and console himself for his disappoint- 
ment, he called for his pipe. The good wife ran 
to fetch it, when lo and behold ! the pipes were all 
dissolved ! there was pipe-clay in plenty, but no 
means of smoking. Poor John could not refrain 
from an oath, and, in order to pacify him, his 
wife kindly offered him a pinch of snufF. He 
took the box : it felt light, and his mind misgave 
him as he tapped it. It was with too much 
cause ; for, on opening it, he found it empty ! 
At length, being alone, he gave vent to his vex- 
ation and disappointment. " I was a fool," cried 
he, " not to desire the Fairy to meddle with the 
hixuries of the rich only. God knows, we have 
so few, that it is very hard we should be depriv- 
ed of them. I will return to her at the end of 
the week, and beg her to make an exception in 
our favor." This thought consoled for a while ; 
but, long before the end of the week, poor John 
had abundance of cause to repent of all he had 
done. His brother Richard, who was engaged in 



THE RICH AND THE POOR. 9 



a silk manufactory, was, with all the other weav- 
ers, turned out of work. The silk had disap- 
peared ; the manufacturers, with ruin staring 
them in the face, had sent their workmen out 
upon the wide world. Poor John, conscience- 
struck, received his starving brother into his 
house. " You will see great changes for the 
better soon," said he, " and get plenty of work." 
— "Where and how?" cried Richard. But 
that was more than John would say. 

Soon after. Jack, his eldest son, returned home 
from the coachmaker with whom he work- 
ed ; all the carriages being changed into wag- 
ons, carts, and ploughs. " But why not re- 
main with your master, and work at the carts 
instead of the coaches ? " said his father. — 
" Nay, but he would not keep me, he had no 
work for me ; he had more carts and wagons 
than he could dispose of for many a day : the 
farmers, he said, had more than they wanted, 
and the cartwright business was at an end, as 
well as coachmaking." 

John sighed ; indeed, he well-nigh groaned 
with compunction. " It is, however, fortunate 
for me," said he, " that I earn my livelihood as a 
laborer in the fields. Corn and hay, thank God ! 
are not luxuries ; and I, at least, shall not be 
thrown out of work." 

In a few days, however, the landlord, on 



10 THE RICH AND THE POOR 

whose estate he worked, walked into the cot- 
tage. John did not immediately know him, so 
much was his appearance altered by a bob 
wig, a russet suit of clothes, and worsted stock- 
ings. "John," said he, "you are an honest 
hard-working man, and I should be sorry you 
should come to distress. Here are a couple of 
guineas, to help you on till you can find some 
new employment, for I have no further occasion 
for your services." John's countenance, which 
had brightened up at the sight of the gold, now 
fell most heavily. He half suspected that his 
landlord might have discovered the author oi 
all the mischief (for such he could no longer 
conceal from himself that the change really 
was), and he muttered, that " he hoped he had 
not offended his honor ? " " Do not honor 
me : we are all now, methinks, peasants alike. 
I have the good fortune, however, to retain my 
land, since that is not a luxury ; but the farm 
is so much larger than, in my present style of 
living, I have any occasion for, that I mean to 
turn the greater part of it into a sheep-walk, or 
let it remain uncultivated." — "Bless your 
honor, that would be a sad pity ! such fine 
meadows and such corn ! But cannot you sell 
the produce, as before ? for corn and hay are 
not luxuries." — "True," rephed the landlord, 
*'but I am now living on the produce of less 



THE RICH AND THE POOR. 11 

than half my estate ; and why take the trouble 
to cultivate more ? for since there are no luxuries 
to purchase, I want no more money than to pay 
my laborers, and l3uy the homely clothes I and 
my family are now obliged to wear. Half the 
produce of my land will be quite sufficient for 
these purposes." 

Poor John was now reduced to despair. The 
cries of distress from people thrown out of work 
everywhere assailed his ears. He knew not 
where to hide his shame and mortification till 
the eventful week had expired, when he has- 
tened to the Fairy, threw himself on his knees, 
and implored her to reverse the fatal decree, 
and to bring back things to what they had been 
before. The light wand once more waved in 
the air, but in a direction opposite to that in 
which it before moved; and immediately the 
stately mansion rose from the lowly cottage ; 
the heavy teams began to prance and snort, 
and shook their clumsy harness till they became 
elegant trappings : but most of all was it de- 
lightful to see the turned-ofF workmen running 
to their looms and their spindles ; the young 
girls and old women enchanted to regain pos- 
session of their lost lace-cushions, on which 
they depended for a livelihood ; and everything 
offering a prospect of wealth and happiness, 



12 THE RICH AND THE POOR. 

compared to the week of misery they had 
passed through. 

John grew wise by this lesson ; and whenever 
any one complained of the hardness of the times, 
and laid it to the score of the expenses of the 
rich, took* upon him to prove that the poor were 
gainers, not losers, by luxuries ; and when argu- 
ment failed to convince his hearers, he related 
his wonderful tale. One night at the public 
house. Bob Scarecrow, who was one of the lis- 
teners, cried out, " Ay, it is all fine talk, folks 
being turned out of work if there were no luxu- 
ries ; but for his part, he knew it, to his cost, 
that he at least lost his livelihood because his 
master spent his all in luxuries. The young 
lord whom- he served as game-keeper set no 
bounds to his extravagance, until he had not a 
farthing left ; and then his huntsmen, his hounds, 
his game-keeper, and his laced livery-servants, 
were all sent off together ! Now, I should be 
glad to know, honest John," added Bob, " wheth- 
er we lost our places because there was too 
much luxury, or too little ?" John felt that 
there was some truth in what Bob said ; but he 
was unwilling to give up the point. At length 
a bright thought struck him, and he triumphantly 
exclaimed, " Too few, Bob ! why, don't you 
see, that as long as your master spent his money 
too freely in luxuries, you kept your places, and 



THE RICH AND THR POOR. 13 

when he was ruined and spent no more, you 
were turned off?" 

Bob, who was a sharp fellow, saw the weak- 
ness of John's argument, and replied, that it 
was neither more nor less than a quibble, fit for 
a pettifogging lawyer ; for," ,said he, " suppose 
that every man of substance were to spend his 
all, and come to ruin, a pretty plight we poor 
folks should be in : and you can't deny, that, if 
the rich lived with prudence, and spent only 
what they could afford, they would continue to 
keep us in employment." John felt convinced ; 
and he was above disowning it. " I grant you," 
said he, " that there may be too much luxury as 
well as too little, as was the case with your 
young lord. But then you must allow, that if 
a man don't spend more than he can afford, that 
is, if he don't injure himself, we have no reason 
to complain of his luxuries, whatever they may 
be, because they give us work, and that not for a 
short time, after which -^we are turned off, as 
was your case, but regularly and for a continu- 
ance." 

John now went home, satisfied that the ex- 
penses of the rich could not harm the poor, 
unless the expenses first injured the rich them- 
selves. No bad safeguard, thought he ; and 
as he trudged on, pondering it in his mind, he 
came to this conclusion : — 



14 THE RICH AND THE POOR. 

" Why then, after all, the rich and the poor 
have but one and the same interest — that is 
very strange ! I always thought they had been 
as wide apart as the east is from the west ! 
But now I am convinced that the comforts of 
the poor are derived from the riches of the 
rich." 



WAGES. 



A FAIRY TALE. 



John Hopkins did not soon forget this les- 
son, though he was far from deriving all the 
benefit from it that he ought. He acknowledg- 
ed that he had not hit upon the right remedy ; 
but, after having long turned the subject in his 
mind, and talked it over with his neighbors, he 
came at length to this conclusion : — Let the 
rich have as many luxuries as they can pay for ; 
but let them give us higher wages for our labor. 
It is by the sweat of our brow, and by the 
work of our hands, that everything is produced. 
Why, the rich would not have even bread to 
put into their mouths, unless we ploughed the 
ground and sowed the seed for them ; so it is 
but fair that we should be better paid for our ser- 
vices. If wages were doubled, we should be as 
well off again as we are now ; and the rich 
would be but a trifle the poorer, that is all ; for 
double wages would be nothing for a man who 



16 WAGES. 

is rolling in wealth to pay ; and yet it would be 
a mighty matter for us poor fellows to re- 
ceive." 

Chuckling over this discovery, John sets off 
for the abode of the Fairy, and begs her, with 
the stroke of her wand, to cause wages to be 
doubled. " Are you sure," inquired the Fairy, 
" that you will have no reason to repent of this 
request if I should grant it?" — *' No, no," said 
John, " this time I cannot be mistaken ; for I 
have considered the matter thoroughly." " Well, 
then," replied she, " we will make the trial. 
But it shall be for three months only. After 
that time we shall see whether you w^ish your 
present scheme to be continued." 

As John was returning home, he could not 
help thinking that, this time at least, he should 
not meet with a discontented reception from his 
wife ; yet, as he opened the door of his cottage, 
he looked rather anxiously in her face : — it 
beamed with joy. " Good news for you, hus- 
band !" cried she ; " the baihff" has been here 
to pay your week's wages ; and see, he has giv- 
en me all this money ; for he says there 's a new 
law in the land, and every one must pay double 
wages !" John thanked the Fairy in his heart, 
for the expedition she had used in comply- 
ing with his wishes. The news soon spread 
through the village ; all received double wages ; 
and the rejoicing w^as universal. 



WAGES. 17 

John was resolved to make a holyday ; so, 
next market day, instead of sending his wife, he 
proposed to go to market himself, and to lay out 
his store of money in clothes for his ragged chil- 
dren. This was readily agreed to, provided he 
would take a basket of plums, and a bundle of 
straw-plait which one of his little girls had made, 
and sell them. To market he went ; and what 
was his delight to learn that plums and straw- 
plait had risen considerably in price. He little 
dreamed that this was owing to his good offices ; 
but, on inquiring the cause, he was told that, the 
condition of the laboring classes being so much 
bettered by their increased wages, they could 
afford to buy new straw bonnets ; so that straw- 
plait was very much in demand, and would fetch 
a good price. " I should not give you so much 
for it," said the bonnet-maker, " if I was not sure 
that I could sell my bonnets at a higher price 
now there is such a demand for them." 

" And why are plums risen in price ?" in- 
quired John of the fruiterer. "Because I have 
none left," replied he. "I had as fine a store 
of plums this morning .as ever I had any market 
day ; but there has .been such a swarm of young 
brats with their halfpence to buy them, that they 
were all sold by nine o'clock ; for, do you see, 
now the fathers get double wages, they havQ not 
the heart to deny their children a halfpenny to 
2 



18 WAGES. 

buy fruit. I began selling my plums at four a 
penny ; but when I found they were likely to 
fall short, I would not let the urchins have more 
than three for a penny ; and as for your basket, 
Hopkins, I mean to sell it at two a penny: so 
you see I can afford to give you a good price for 
it." John did not quite understand this ; " but 
it shows," thought he, " that I have hit the right 
nail on the head at last. It seems that as much 
unforeseen good comes of the Fairy's wand, this 
time, as there came unforeseen bad luck before." 
And now that he had sold his plums and his 
plait, he determined to go to the w^oollen-dra- 
per's to buy cloth for his children's jackets. 
He looked rather blank when, on entering, he 
found that cloth had risen in price, and was two 
shillings a yard dearer than before. He express- 
ed his surprise. " Why, there's no end to my 
customers this market day," said the draper. " I 
verily believe half the town means to have new 
coats, and I have not near cloth enough to fur- 
nish them all : so those that will have it must 
pay the price I ask, or go w^ithout." '' That's 
not fair, to my mind," cried John : " the cloth 
cost you no more than it did last market 
day ; so you can afford to sell it as cheap as 
you did then." — " Perhaps I could," repli- 
ed the woollen-draper; but, since I can get 
more for it, I will. Don't you know, Hop- 



WAGES; 19 

kins, that, when corn falls short at market, the 
price rises ? When there is more of an article 
to be had than is wanted, why you must sell it 
for what you can get, though you may chance 
to make a loss instead of a gain ; but when there 
is less to be sold than is wanted, why you may 
sell it at an advanced price. That is my case 
now : many more want the cloth than I can 
supply ; sc, why should I let you have it rather 
than another, unless you pay me a better price ? 
We must make hay while the sun shines." — 
" To be sure," said John to himself: " I sold my 
plums and my plait dearer than last market day, 
though they stood me in no more ; and it's nat- 
ural enough the draper should do the same. 
Well," said he, addressing the draper, " it's a 
bright sunshine, and we are all right to make 
the most of it ; but, as my boys can wait a bit 
longer for their coats, I shall stop till you lay in 
a new stock of cloth, and then it will be cheap- 
er." — "I won't promise you that," replied the 
draper. " There's no saying what will come of 
these double wages, it's such an out of the way 
thing. It looks fair enough, to be sure ; but all 
is not gold that glitters, as you know, Hopkins J' 

^' But when you have a fresh supply, and 
plenty of cloth for all the customers that may 
come, I see no reason why it should be dearer." 

" I have not had time to turn it well in my 



20 WAGES. 

mind ; but it seems to me, that when I have 
sold my stock on hand, and go to the manufac- 
turer for more, he will not let me have it on the 
same terms, seeing there is such a demand for 
cloth, and that I sell it at an advanced price. Be- 
sides," continued he, rubbing his forehead, " a 
thought just comes across me, — he can't afford 
to let me have the goods so cheap ; for, since he 
is obliged to pay his workmen double wages, the 
cloth must stand him in much more ; and if he 
can't get it back from the shopkeeper, why the 
factory must go to ruin. Is it not so, Hopkins ? " 
— "It looks very like it," rephed Hopkins, 
thoughtfully. " Well, then," continued the dra- 
per, " it's impossible for me to say whether the 
manufacturer will be able to sell his cloth higher, 
or whether he will be ruined : all I know is, that 
if I must pay him a higher price for his cloth, 
I must get it back from my customers, or I may 
as well shut up shop ; ay, and better too ; for I 
should be losing instead of making money." — 
''Well, then," said Hopkins, mayhap I had as 
well buy the cloth now, dear as it is." Having 
made his purchases, he found that he had scarce- 
ly money enough to pay for them. He was 
sadly disappointed ; for he had flattered himself, 
that, what with the high price he had got for his 
plums and his plait, and what with the double 
wages he had received, he might contrive to eke 



WAGES. 21 

out the money, so as to buy himself a new smock 
frock, of which he stood much in need ; but that 
was now out of the question. 

His wife and children impatiently waited his 
return. The little ones had strolled to the end 
of the lane, in hopes of seeing him, and soon 
ran home with the glad tidings that " father was 
in sight, with a great big bundle on his sh,oul- 
ders." Jenny had been promised a new thim- 
ble, and Jem a penny whistle, if any money 
was left after the more necessary purchases had 
been made. John at length arrived; and, after 
wiping his brows, he began by boasting of the 
high price he had got for the basket of plums 
and the bundle of plait ; whereupon his wife 
gave him a hearty kiss, calling him " a good man 
as he was ; " and the children crowded round 
his knees, and began to untie the bundle he had 
brought home. The contents fell far short of 
their expectations ; and they rummaged in vain 
for the presents they had expected. Then fol- 
lowed the indispensable explanation of the rise 
in price of cloth as well as of other goods. 
" Humph ! " cried the good wife, " if we must 
pay so much more for everything we have to 
buy, I don't see how we shall be any the better 
for the double wages we get." — "Well, but," 
retorted her husband, '' it's not only me, but 
Dick and Sally at the factory get double wages 



22 WAGES. 

too ; so there's no room to complain wife ; for, 
if our means run short, they would be willing 
and able to lend us a helping hand." 

Some time after, Dick came home ; but, alas ! 
far from lending a hand, it was to tell the sad 
news of his being discharged from the factory. 
" Why, how's this, Dick ? " said his father ; 
" were not you satisfied with double wages ? " — 
" I had little need to be so," replied he ; " double 
wages one week, and none at all the next : I 
would rather by half have had the common 
wages, without being turned off." — " But why 
should you be turned off, if you did your duty ? " 
— " Oh, for that matter, there was no fault found 
with me ; only the master had not enough to 
pay us all, so he discharged half his men^ and it 
fell to my lot to be one of the number." 

"Well, but," said John, "by turning off half 
his men, he can get only half the work done ; 
and then, how can he supply the shopkeepers ? " 
— " He says the shopkeepers won't want so 
much goods as they did before this new law was 
made." 

" There he's wrong," cried John, " to my 
certain knowledge : for it's scarce a month back 
that the draper told me he sold a deal more cloth 
than he did before the rise of wages, though 
the price was higher by two shillings a yard." 

" That was only just a spirt at first," cried 



WAGES. 28 

Dick. " When folks first got their double wages, 
they were so flush of money, they thought 
there would be no end to their riches ; but when 
they came to find that so many buyers made 
prices rise, (and more especially when half their 
families were turned out of work, and they had 
their children to support idle,) they saw that 
there was more outgoings than incomings ; and 
that they had enough to do to provide food, 
without furbishing themselves out with new 
clothes." 

Hopkins felt conscience-struck : he looked 
blank, and had not a word to say for himself. 
^* No, no," continued Dick : " brisk as the cloth 
was at first, it's slack enough now, and prices are 
falling apace." 

" That I know to my cost," quoth Dame 
Hopkins. " Why, last market day I could not 
sell my fruit nor Jenny's plait, for much more 
than half you got for it, John, when wages first 
rose. Folks begin to find they have no such 
store of spare money as they thought for, to lay 
out in new bonnets, or to give their children to 
buy fruit." 

The fall in price, John thought, was all in 
his favor ; for he had more to buy than to sell. 
This made him pluck up courage ; and he 
said, — "Why, Dick, we must be better for 
things coming round to their natural price, so 



24 WAGES. 

as wages don't lower too ; but I should have 
done wiser to have waited, and have bought the 
boys' jackets later." — " Wiser still not to have 
bought them at all," replied his son ; " and that's 
what you would have done had you waited ; for 
times will fall heavy on us now, father, so far as 
I can see." 

'' Never be disheartened, lad," cried Hop- 
kins, giving his son an encouraging thump on 
the back ; you see things all askance, because 
of being turned off at the factory : but surely," 
said he, with a hesitation in his voice which he 
would not let out in words, " such high wages 
must be a good thing." — '' Much good may 
it do those that get them," muttered Dick, sulk- 
ily. " If things don't change, the manufacturers 
will all be bankrupts ; and then there will be 
work neither at fifteen shillings, nor at thirty. 
There's well-nigh half the machines at our fac- 
tory going to wreck and ruin by standing idle ; 
and one of the great steam-engines, that cost 
master a power of money, lying just like dead. 
But how is he to help it, while the wages eat up 
all his profits ; ay, and more too ? so, the less 
he works the better ; for it's my belief he sells at 
a clear loss." 

" One would think this new law was made to 
mock us," said the wife ; "for it promises fair, 
and just makes fools of us for beheving it." 



WAGES. 25 

" It's a rare lesson, however," exclaimed Hop- 
kins, with a sigh ; ''for it shows that a rise of 
wages is full of danger and mischief." 

" I don't agree with you, there, father," 
cried Dick : " a rise of wages, in a fair and 
natural way. Is a very good thing. Last year, 
when our master had more orders than he 
could well get done, he raised the wages, so as 
to get more hands ; and people came flocking 
in from all quarters, and quitting other employ, 
where they did not get so much. Then he 
could afford to pay us all well, because trade 
w^as brisk, and he got good profits. When 
wages rise because there is a greater demand 
for workmen, we are all the better for it, master 
and man too ; but when they rise from a foolish 
and arbitrary law, it does us all harm instead of 
good ; and it is to be hoped that those who made 
it will soon see the folly of it, and bring us back 
to the natural wages." 

This observation came home to poor John, 
who kept his own secret, but swore in his heart 
that, when once out of this scrape, he would 
never more apply to the Fairy. A few weeks 
after, Sally, who worked at the silk mills, came 
home with the same story as her brother. " So, 
here we are, saddled with two more children," 
cried his wife ; " and this comes of high wages'.' 
— " Well, at least I have got high wages to 



26 WAGES. 

maintain 'em," replied John, who was still un- 
willing to confess that he had been in the 
wrong. 

As he was speaking, the bailiff entered the 
door. " Good morrow to you, John," said he : 
— " why, methinks you do not look in such 
glee as you did last month, about the rise of 
wages." — " Nor have I cause, muttered John : 
" see, here are two of my grown children sent 
home to me, out of work. But, mayhap," 
added he, brightening up at the thought, — 
" mayhap you, Master Barnes, might get 'em 
some work at the farm. Though they are not 
used to that kind of labor, I 'm sure they will 
turn their hand to it, and thank ye heartily for 
it." — " Ah, I might have given 'em work be- 
fore this change," answered the bailiff; " but 
my master can't afford to pay 'em double 
wages ; and the new law won't allow us to give 
less. To say the truth, I am now come upon 
a very different errand ; for, d 'ye see, we are 
trying, instead of increasing the number of our 
workmen, to do what we can to reduce them. 
My master says he has too great a respect for 
you, John, to turn you off: you have worked 
nigh a score of years for him, and have got 
such a large family to maintain." — " Thank 
his honor kindly," said John. " I have worked 
for him long and hard, too Master Barnes. I 'm 



WAGES. 27 

sure I have followed the precepts of the Bible, 
and earned my bread by the sweat of my brow. 
Thank his honor " — " Ay, but, John, in- 
terrupted the bailiff, "you stopped my mouth 
with your thanks before you had heard me out. 
You know, however willing the squire may be, he 
can't coin money ; so, what is he to do ? Now, 
this is what he has thought of : — he says he 
will employ you three days of the week, instead 
of six." — "And what am I to do the other 
three ? " asked John. — " Why, fyou must seek 
for work elsewhere." — " Seek, indeed, I may; 
but I shall not find," quoth John. " Why, 
there's Dick and Sally both turned adrift ; and 
if they can't find work, an old man like me stands 
no chance." — " Well," said the bailiff, " if you 
sit with your hands across three days of the 
week, you are as well paid for the three others 
as you used to be for the whole week , besides, 
his honor is stretching a point for your sake, 
John; for, d'ye^see, he pays you the same 
wages a week as before, and yet he will have 
only half the work done." John thought that but 
poor comfort, when he saw he had two children 
more on his hands. The bailiff took his depart- 
ure ; and, as he shut the door, the poor wife 
lifted up her hands, fetched a deep sigh, and said, 
— " Ah, well-a-day ! how httle we understand 
these matters : who would not have thought 



28 WAGES. 

that, when the law obhged the rich to pay us 
double wages, it would have made us much 
richer, and made them only a trifle poorer? 
but now it seems it will bring us all to ruin to- 
gether." 

" Never fear," said John, " it is the Fairy's 
doing ; it will be all over at the end of three 
months, and two of them are gone already." 

So it was. At the expiration of three months 
the influence of the Fairy's wand ceased, wages 
returned to their usual rate, Dick and Sally 
were restored to their work at the mills and 
the factory, and John labored with more good 
will six days of the week than he had done 
when he was employed only three, though at 
double wages. 

Moreover, he had learnt how dangerous it 
was to meddle with things he did not under- 
stand : and he came to a firm resolution of 
never more applying to the Fairy; but to en- 
deavor to get clearer ideas on such matters. 
This he was in some measure enabled to do 
through his son Dick, during the time he re- 
mained at home ; for Dick, working at a factory, 
and living in a town, had many more opportuni- 
ties of picking up knowledge than a country la- 
borer, whose life is comparatively solitary. Fac- 
tory men have so deep an interest in the rise 
and fall of wages, that they are in the habit 



WAGES. 29 

of talking the matter over, till at last they get 
pretty good notions on the subject. They are 
aware that their own employment depends on 
the manufacturer being able to sell his goods 
with profit : they see, therefore, that the pros- 
perity of the master and his workmen go hand 
in hand. John was surprised that Dick should 
turn out so knowing a lad, as he had had very 
little schoohng. Dick observed, that working 
in a factory was like going to school, only that 
they learnt by talking, instead of by reading. 
" Well, but I should have thought your talk 
would have run on merrier matters, and that 
you would not have worried your brains with 
such difficult subjects," said John. — ^' Men are 
sharp witted, father, when their interest is at 
stake ; and if it 's fit that they should learn 
their calling, it 's just as fit that they should be 
able to judge whether their calhng goes on well 
or ill, and the reason why and wherefore." 

" It's not all good that's learnt by your talk 
in a factory, Dick. I 've heard say that one 
bad man will corrupt a whole factory, just as 
one rotten apple will infect the whole heap." — 
"It's no such thing," replied Dick; "when 
men can earn their livelihood fairly and honest- 
ly, they are ready enough to go on in the straight 
road : it 's want and wretchedness that leads 
them into the crooked paths, you may take my 
word for it." 



THE THREE GIANTS 



As Hopkins was sitting one evening at his 
cottage door smoking his pipe, and his children 
gambohng around him, an old pedlar came up, 
and offered his little wares for sale ; their pur- 
chases were small, for small were their means ; 
but as the poor man seemed much tired, they 
offered him a seat, and some refreshment. — 
" It is a weary length of way I am come," said 
the old man, " and where can I get a night's 
lodging ?" — "I wish I had one to give you," 
replied Hopkins, " but we are overcrowded with 
the family already ; however, there 's a bit of an 
outhouse behind, where I could make you up a 
bed of clean straw, with a warm coverUd, if that 
would serve your turn?" — " Ay, and a blessing 
to you for it," replied the pedlar ; " and if it 
will please these young ones, I can tell them a 
story in return, to wile away the evening." — 
Upon this all the children crowded around him, 
crying out, "A story! a story!" — I hope it 
will be a wonderful one," said Tom, ^' about 
giants or faries, and such like." — " Pooh, pooh, 



THE THREE GIANTS. 31 

cried Jenny ; " I like a true story- 
better by half." — "True or false," said Hop- 
kins, " I care not, so as there be but some sense 
in it, that one may learn somewhat by it." — " Oh, 
pray," cried little Betsy, " tell us a pretty sto- 
ry like those in my book of fables ; but none of 
the moral at the end, if you please, that is al- 
ways so stupid." — "I fear I shall have a hard 
matter to satisfy you all," said the old man: "one 
is for the marvellous, another for truth, and an- 
other good sense, and the little one likes a 
fable. Well," said he, " I will do my best to 
suit your tastes." So, after clearing his throat, 
he began thus : — 

" A long while ago, when the times were no 
better than they are now, and perhaps worse 
for aught I know, a poor laboring man, encum- 
bered with a large family of young children, and 
finding it every day more difficult to earn where- 
withal to maintain them, resolved to go and seek 
his fortune beyond seas. Several of his neigh- 
bors, who felt the same distress, had joined to- 
gether to sell what little they had, in order to 
fit themselves out, and pay their passage to one 
of the foreign colonies, where they w^ere told 
they might have farms of their own just for a 
mere nothing ; and our good man Jobson thought 
he could not do better than take his wife and 
family thither. So off they all set for Liver- 



32 THE THREE GIANTS. 

pool, where they embarked for , I cannot re- 
collect the name of the place ; but it matters not, 
for the poor folks never reached it ! When they 
had been at sea some weeks, far away from 
land, and nothing but wide waters all around 
them, there arose a great storm, w^hich drove the 
ship out beyond all reckoning ; and the sailors, 
do what they would, could never manage her ; 
so she drifted before the wind for several days 
and nights, and at last struck upon a rocky 
shore, and w^as wrecked. The poor folks had 
much ado to save their lives ; they did so, how- 
ever ; and were somewhat comforted when they 
saw that the land to which they had escaped 
was a pleasant, fruitful country. They found no 
inhabitants. So much the better, thought they ; 
we shall have all the land to ourselves ; and we 
may live as happily here as we could do in the 
colony, if we can but get our farming tools from 
the wreck, and a few clothes. ' And some of 
the pots and pans for cooking,' cried the wo- 
men. ' Oh, pray remember the poor hens in 
the coop,' hollowed out one of the children, as 
the men were trudging off to the wreck to see 
what they could save. They brought ashore 
much more than they expected ; and, to make 
short of my story, they settled themselves pret- 
ty comfortably ; and in the course of a year each 
of the families had a neat log-house and a little 



THE THREE GIANTS. 33 

garden of vegetables : fruit they found in abun- 
dance growing wild ; and, as it was a hot cli- 
mate there were grapes, and figs, and cocoa- 
nuts, and a number of fruits, the names of which 
they did not know. They had sown corn, and 
bad got in a fine crop, enough for them all ; but 
the difficulty was to turn it into flour for bread. 
They had no other means than by bruising it be- 
tween two stones, for it could hardly be called 
grinding ; and it took up so much time and 
labor, that Jobson, who had a large family to 
feed, found it a hard matter to make all ends 
meet." 

" Well, but there 's nothing wonderful in this 
story," said Tom : " I hope you will come to a 
ghost, or a giant, or a fairy soon." 

** All in good time my lad," replied the 
pedlar ; " youth must have patience with old 
age ; we cannot scamper on so fast as you do ; 
but it 's coming." Upon hearing this, the chil- 
dren all crowded still closer around him. — 
" Well, one day as Jobson was taking a stroll 
over the new country, and thinking how he wish- 
ed his boys were big enough to assist him in his 
work, (for he felt well nigh worn out himself,) 
iie came to a valley wdiere he had never been 
before ; a river wound through it overshaded 
with trees : and it was so beautiful, that he 
could not find in his heart to turn back ; so he 
3 



34 THE THREE GIANTS. 

went on and on, till at last he came within sight 
of an object that made him start back and 
shudder." 

'•'Oh, here it 's coming ! " cried Tom, clap- 
ping his hands : " what was it ? it could not be a 
fairy, for that would never have frightened 
him." 

" It was as little like a fairy," said the pedlar, 
" as anything well could be. It was an enor- 
mous giant, stretched at his whole length upon 
the ground. Jobson would have fled ; but the 
giant's eyes were shut, so that he appeared to be 
asleep ; and he looked so harmless and good hu- 
mored, that Jobson stood gazing on him till his 
fear was nearly over. He was clad in a robe of 
dazzling brightness where the sun shone upon it, 
but the greater part was shaded by the trees ; 
and it reflected all their difterent colors, which 
made it look like a green changing silk. As 
Jobson stood, lost in amazement, the giant open- 
ed his eyes, and turned towards him with a good 
humored smile." 

" Then he was not a wicked giant ? " said 
Betsy. 

" Far from it," replied the old man. " Still, 
when Jobson saw that he was awake, and 
stretching himself as if he was going to rise, he 
took to his heels ; but the giant remained 
quietly stretched on the grass, and called after 



THE THREE GIANTS. 35 

hini in a tone of voice so gentle, that Jobson 
was tempted to stop. ' Fear me not, good 
man, because I am strong and powerful ; I am 
not cruel, and will do you no harm.' Jobson 
hesitated : but the giant looked so kind-hearted, 
that he felt inclined to trust to his words, and, 
step by step, he approached. ' Why should 
you fear me because of my size ? ' said the giant ; 
' you are not afraid of yonder hill, which is 
bigger than lam.' — ^ Ay, but you are alive,' 
rephed Jobson, ' and I have read of giants being 
very wicked. It is true, I never saw one before. 
Indeed, till now, I thought they were only idle 
stories made to amuse children.' — ' The wicked 
giants you have read of are so,' repUed he ; ' but 
there are real giants in nature, who, far from 
being inclined to evil, are willing to do all the 
good to mankind that lies in their power ; and 
I am one of these.' — ' Then a deal of good 
you can do,' rephed Jobson ; ^ for you must 
be as strong as Samson.' — He then began to 
cast over in his mind what good the giant might 
do him, seeing he was so ready ; for, thought he, 
if he is willing to work, he can do more in a day 
than I can in a month ; so I '11 e'en make bold to 
ask him the question. ' I am ready to do any 
work you will set me ; but I must tell you, that, 
not having been in the habit of working in this 
desert island, I shall require some teaching in or» 



36 THE THREE GIANTS, 

der to know how to set about it.' — ' If that is 
all/ said Jobson, ' I can teach you any work 
you would like to do.' But a difficulty occur- 
red to him ; he concluded that the giant would 
require to be paid in proportion to the work he 
did ; and he asked, with some anxiety, what 
wages he would expect. ' Wages ! ' replied the 
giant, smiling : ' I cannot expect any ; I do not 
even know what wages mean.' Jobson was 
ready to leap for joy at the idea of getting a la- 
borer who could do the work of a hundred men 
without wages ; and he was hurrying away to 
tell his wife the good news, when the giant said, 
' If you will let me carry you home, it will save 
you the trouble of walking, and you will be tliere 
much sooner.' Jobson rather hung back ; yet 
not liking to show any distrust of one who was 
willing to do him so much good, he consented. 
' You may think it strange,' said the giant ; ' but 
as I never carried any one before, you must 
show me how to do it.' — ' He seems rather stu- 
pid,' thought Jobson : ' however, it is well he 
takes so little upon himself, and is so ready to be 
taught.' — ' Will you mount upon my back ? or 
shall I carry you in my arms ? ' continued the 
giant. Jobson was very glad to have the option, 
for he had much rather mount him like a horse, 
than be carried in his arms like a baby. Besides, 
if the truth must be told, he was still rather fear- 



THE THREE GIANTS. 3T 

ful of seeing the giant stand upright, and of being 
folded in his arms : having, therefore, first sad- 
dled him with some planks of wood, to make a 
comfortable seat, and having cut himself a long 
pole, which might serve to hasten his pace, in 
case of need, he desired him to take the road 
homewards. The giarit obeyed : he neither 
walked nor trotted, but glided on so smoothly, 
that, though he went at a pretty brisk pace, Job- 
son felt scarcely any motion. In a short time 
they reached the cottage. But you may imagine 
the fright of Dame Jobson and all her little crew 
when they beheld him mounted on such an enor- 
mous animal : the children ran screaming away, 
as if they had seen a wild beast, and the poor 
woman wrung her hands in despair, and fell a-cry- 
ing ; then she threw herself at the feet of the 
giant, begging him to set her dear husband at 
liberty. ' He is quite free,' said the giant ; I 
only brought him home to save him the fatigue 
of walking ; — and now, good woman, if there is 
anything I can do for you, you need but tell me ; 
for I ask no better than to be busy. The dame 
courtsied, and trembled, and wiped her eyes, and 
tried to smile ; but she was so astounded with 
wonder at the sight of this monstrous giant, and 
so surprised at his good-nature, that she began 
to doubt whether she was in her right senses. 
And when her husband talked to her, and told 



38 THE THREE GIANTS. 

her all that had passed between them, and how 
much the giant had promised to do for them, she 
lifted up her hands and eyes, and said she would 
try to believe it ; but she thought it was only too 
good to be true. In the mean while, the chil- 
dren, who had scampered away, when they saw 
their father and mother in friendly talk w4th the 
giant, ventured gently to return. * Look at his 
legs,' cried little Jack ; ' I am sure I could not 
reach round the calf.' — ' If he stood upright, he 
might gather the cocoa nuts without climbing,' 
said Will. As they drew near, they crow^ded to- 
gether, as if for defence : but when they saw the 
giant smile upon them, and heard their father 
and mother say there was nothing to fear, their 
terror ceased ; for neither father nor mother had 
ever deceived them, so they had full belief in all 
they said. Their fright w^as no sooner over, than 
they gave way to their curiosity. The giant was 
still stretched upon the grass ; and in a few min- 
utes the little ones were crawling and climbing 
all over his huge body, and making a playfellow 
of him. 

" In the mean time, the father and mother 
were consulting together how they should man- 
age to lodge and board the giant. ' Why, he 
will want a room bio^fijer than all our house,' said 
the dame, ' and I 'm sure no one can build it but 
himself: then, as for his food,' continued she, 



THE THREE GIANTS. 39 

he will eat us out of house and home ; he will 
devour a plantation of cabbages and a flitch of 
bacon at a meal.' This Jobson had never con- 
sidered ; and he began to doubt whether, after 
all, he had made so good a bargain as he had 
supposed. 'We had best go and speak to the 
giant, wife,' said he ; and accordingly they went 
to inquire what sort of fare he would want. ^ No- 
thing more than a draught of fresh water,' repli- 
ed he. — ' Well, that is very moderate, indeed,' 
exclaimed Jobson ; ' neither spirits nor even malt 
liquor ! ' — ' Ay, but for your eating, friend,' 
quoth the wife, who began to tremble for her 
kitchen. — ^ I never eat,' returned the giant : 
' strong as I am, I require no food, so do not dis- 
turb yourselves about that ; and as for house- 
room or bedding, I always lie on the grass when 
I am not employed.' You would have thought 
that Jobson and his wife would have gone wild 
with joy, when they heard that their powerful 
laborer worked without board, food, or wages ! 
' Why, we shall no longer want for anything,' 
cried they, ' provided he always keeps in this 
good temper, and ready to work.' — ' We must 
not overshoot the mark,' said his wife, ' but do 
what we can to make things agreeable to him.' 
So they went and told him they should not think 
of asking him to do what would fatigue him, and 
begged he would work only just when he liked. 
' That depends upon you, my good friends ; I 



40 THE THREE GIANTS. 

am ready to work whenever you have work to 
give me ; as for fatigue, 1 do not know what it 
means.' — ' Indeed !' exclaimed Jobson and his 
wife ; ' more and more wonderful ! So, then, 
you want no further rest than your night's sleep?' 
— • ' I never sleep, rephed the giant ; ' and can as 
easily work the four and twenty hours round as 
I can a single minute.' Jobson was lost in as- 
tonishment, and overjoyed at his good luck. 
They now put their heads together to settle what 
work they should set the giant to do first. ' He 
shall begin by bruising the corn that I am so 
tired of working at,' cried Jobson ; so he showed 
him how he used the stones for that purpose. 
But this proved mere child's play to the giant ; 
and Jobson thought, if he could but get two 
large flat stones, such as were used in a mill, the 
giant would be able to get through much more 
work. But then the quarry was a long way off; 
and when they were cut, how could they ever 
be got home ? ' They will be no burthen to 
me to carry,' said the giant ; ' let us be off.' 
Jobson only staid to fetch his tools, which he 
placed in a sort of large shallow box upon the 
giant's shoulders. This served him also for a 
seat ; and carrying the long staff in his hand, 
away they went to the quarry, where they soon 
cut the stones, which were placed in the box on 
the giant's back, and brought home. When 



THE THREE GIANTS. 41 

the stones were properly arranged, the giant 
went to work as steadily as if he had done noth- 
ing else all his life. At nightfall the happy 
couple begged him to leave off and take some 
rest ; but they could not persuade him to do so. 
They went to bed themselves ; but not without 
first returning thanks to God in their prayers, for 
having sent them so great a blessing as a labor- 
er who worked both day and night without want- 
ing either food or lodging." — " And pray what 
was the name of this wonderful giant ?" said 
Tom, interrupting the pedlar. 

" Aquafluentes,^^ replied he. 

" Oh, what a long hard name !" exclaimed lit- 
tle Betsy ; " I never heard such a name before." 
— " Giants have not the same sort of names 
as we men have," rephed the pedlar ; " but I 
assure you it is a very significant one. Howev- 
er, now let me go on with my story. 

" The children were awakened in the night 
by the noise of the giant grinding corn ; and, 
frightened at the unusual sound, they called to 
their mother, who told them what it was. And 
when she saw her husband quietly sleeping by 
her side, and thought what a world of labor he 
was spared, she ejaculated a blessing on their 
new friend before she again fell asleep. The 
next morning, Aquafluentes having ground all the 
corn, asked for more work ; and while Jobson 



42 THE THREE GIANTS. 

was thinking what he could set him to, he began 
to wash the house, and carried away all the dirt 
and filth in a trice. He then took the children 
down to the water side, played with them for 
some time, and began teaching them to swim : 
this delighted them beyond measure ; and when 
they returned home to breakfast, clean and fresh, 
and with rosy cheeks and good appetites, they 
were full of the praises of their playfellow, Aqua- 
fluentes. In the mean time, Jobson had settled 
on a task for him : he had long wished to bring 
home a large tree which had been blown down in 
the forest, for the purposeof cutting it into planks, 
in order to floor his cottage, which got damp and 
muddy in wet weather ; but it was impossible for 
him either to carry so heavy a burthen or to cut it 
into planks. Now nothing was more easy; he 
slung the tree across the giant's shoulders, who 
brought it home without difficulty. Then Job- 
son showed him how to use the saw ; he soon 
took to it ; and, after some little time, proved a 
much more exact and regular sawyer than his 
master. Jobson thought he got on prodigiously 
with his w^ork ; yet he said to himself, — ' If I 
could fasten eight or ten saws together, parallel 
to each other, with handles at each end, 1 am 
sure he would be strong enough to pull them 
backwards and forwards, and to cut eight or ten 
planks at once.' The difficulty was to obtain such 



THE THREE GIANTS. 43 

a number of saws. Jobson applied to his neigh- 
bors, and agreed to provide them with a stipula- 
ted quantity of planks in return for the use of 
their saws. The fame of the laborious giant had 
spread throughout the colony, and every one was 
eager to furnish a saw, in order to partake of the 
benefit of his work. One of the men, who had 
been bred a carpenter, undertook to arrange the 
saws in a kind of framework; others dug out 
a large sawpit. This took some time ; but when 
it was accomplished, and the giant fairly set to 
work, the whole tree was cut into neat planks in 
the course of a day. 

" After Jobson had paid for the use of the 
saws, there remained planks enough not only to 
floor his cottage, but to make a door, a set of 
shelves, and a good sized table. The carpenter 
offered to make these things for Jobson, on con- 
dition that he would allow Aquafluentes to grind 
his corn. This was a bargain advantageous to 
both parties, and therefore soon agreed upon ; 
and when the rest of the colony saw how com- 
fortable and tidy Jobson's cottage was become, 
they set to felling trees in the forest for the same 
purpose. Then it was necessary to pay Jobson 
for Aquafluentes's labor to bring them home and 
saw them into planks ; for it was not to be' ex- 
pected that Jobson should part with the services 
of such a workman without compensation. Each 



44 THE THREE GIANTS. 

brought him what he could best spare, or what 
he thought Jobson most wanted. One came 
laden with a basket of fish, being part of a 
draught he had just caught; another brought 
half of a young kid he had lately snared; anoth- 
er some wild ducks he had shot ; and so they 
went on, till Jobson's cottage was so well stored 
that it might have been taken for the larder of 
some great inn. One man brought Jobson a 
purse of money which he had saved from the 
wreck, and offered to pay him in cash for the 
use of the giant's labor. ' Why, my good fel- 
low, what should I do with your money ? it 
would be of no use to me here ; and a guinea 
would not be half so valuable as these good 
things which your neighbors have brought me: 
however, as I have more food than we shall be 
able to consume for many a day, [ will take your 
money for once ; mayhap, some day or other, it 
may turn to some use.' Last of all came a poor 
widow, who had lost her husband since they 
were wrecked : she wished much for a floor of 
planks to keep her children dry and clean ; but 
she had nothing to offer in exchange for the gi- 
ant's labor but a basket of potatoes from her lit- 
tle garden. ^ I shall not take your potatoes, 
Martha,' cried Jobson, ' so carry them back 
again. ' Alas !' said the poor widow, I have 
nothing else to offer : you know how destitute I 



THE THREE GIANTS. 45 

am. Jackson has kindly promised to cut me 
down a tree, if I can obtain the giant's services 
to bring it home and saw it into planks ; and I 
dare say the carpenter would lend me a hand, 
some leisure day, to lay down the floor.' — ' And 
do you think I am the only one who will not 
give a turn to a poor neighbor without reward ? ' 
muttered Jobson, half sulkily. ' Go your ways, 
my good woman ; bid Jackson cut down your 
tree ; and as soon as that is done, Aquafluentes 
shall take it in hand.' The poor woman thank- 
ed him with tears in her eyes ; and away she 
trudged with her load of potatoes, which, to her, 
felt lighter than if she had carried back the bas- 
ket empty ; so pleased was she to have them to 
dress for her children's dinner. 

" There were two men still loitering about the 
door of Jobson 's cottage, w^ho would gladly have 
got the use of the giant's services ; but, having 
always been idle fellows, who had done no more 
than scrape together the bare necessaries of life, 
they had not a single thing to offer in return. ' If so, 
you had as well be gone,' said Jobson ; ' the giant 
does not work to encourage idleness, I promise 
you.' — ' What can we do ? ' rephed one of them ; 
' if we have got nothing, we can give nothing.' — 
' You have, both of you, got a good pair of arms ; 
and if you had made a right use of them, you would 
not have come empty handed now.' — Jobson's 



46 THE THREE GIANTS. 

wife, knowing they had each of them a wife and 
children, could not but have a fellow feeling 
towards them, — 'you have still got your arms,' 
said she ; ' and if you will use them for us for a 
time, I '11 venture to say my good man will lend 
you the giant's services.' — ' But,' said Jobson, 
* while we have the giant to work for us, what 
need have we of the help of others ? ' — ' There 
is a power of things Aquafluentes cannot do, you 
well know, Jobson ; and have not I many a time 
heard you say that he does his work so fast, that 
it 's more than you can do to get it ready for him ; 
now, why should not you, husband, take your 
ease a bit, and let others prepare the work for 
him.' — ' That 's true enough,' replied he ; ' see- 
ing we are so well to do in the world, there 's no 
manner of reason why I should slave myself. 
But then,' added he, ' I doubt whether I can 
trust these idle fellows.' — ' You may give an eye 
to them, and see that they mind what they are 
set about : besides,' added she, ' I sadly want a 
set of large baskets to keep the store of good 
things our neighbors bring us.' So it was agreed 
that the giant was to grind the corn of these two 
men, on condition that they should do such work 
in return as Jobson and his wife required. Then 
one of them was sent to strip off the bark from 
the trunk of a tree, and place it in the pit ready 
for the giant to saw ; whilst the other was des- 



THE THREE GIANTS. 47 

patched to gather slips of willow, and make them 
into baskets. 

" It would be endless to relate all the advan- 
tages, which the colony reaped from the giant's 
labor ; but, though the benefit was general, Job- 
son, being master of his services, was by far the 
greatest gainer by them. This led his neigh- 
bors, when they had a leisure day, to stroll about 
the unknown parts of the country, in hopes of 
meeting with some other giant, whom they might 
engage in their service. Many were the inqui- 
ries nlade of Aquafluentes, whether there were 
any other giants in the island. ' I have a broth- 
er,' rephed he ; ^ but we seldom meet : I love to 
repose in the valleys ; and he for the most part fre- 
quents the hills.' — ' And can he do as much work 
as you do ? ' — ' Yes,' replied Aquafluentes, ' when 
he is in the humor ; but he is more variable in his 
temper, and now and then is over boisterous. He 
sometimes overcomes the natural calmness of my 
temper, and works me up into a rage.' 

" The search of the colonists was long fruit- 
less ; at length, one day Jackson, climbing a high 
rock in pursuit of a wild goat, saw . a magnificent 
figure seated upon the summit. He could scarce- 
ly distinguish the shape, for his eyes were daz- 
zled by its brightness ; but what struck him most 
were two enormous wings, as large as the sails of 
a ship, but thin and transparent as the wings of a 



48 THE THREE GIANTS. 

gnat. Jackson doubted not but that this was 
the brother of Aquafluentes. Alarmed at the 
account he had heard of the uncertainty of his 
temper, he hesitated whether to approach : the 
hope of gain, however, tempted him : and as he 
drew nearer, he observed that he also had a smil- 
ing countenance ; so, mustering up courage, he 
ventured to accost him, and inquire whether he 
was the person they had so long been in search 
of; and whether he would engage in his service. 
* My name is Ventosus,' cried the winged giant ; 
' and I am ready to work for you, if you will let 
me have my own way. I am not of the low grov- 
elling disposition of my brother, who plods on 
with the same uniform pace. I cannot help 
sometimes laughing at his slow motion, and I 
amuse myself with ruffling his placid temper, in 
order to make him jog on a little faster. But 
then I frequently lend him a helping hand when 
he is laden with a heavy burthen. I perch upon 
his bosom, and, stretching out my wings, I move 
with such rapidity as almost to lift him from the 
ground.' Jackson was astonished to hear Aqua- 
fluentes accused of sluggishness : he told Ven- 
tosus what a prodigious quantity of work he had 
done for the colony. ' He is a snail to me, for 
all that,' hollowed out Ventosus, who had some- 
times a very loud voice ; and, to show his rap- 
idity, he spread his wings, and was out of sight 



THE THREE GIANTS. 49 

in a moment. Jackson was sadly frighten- 
ed, lest he should be gone forever ; but he soon 
returned, and consented to accompany Jackson 
home, on condition that he would settle him in 
an elevated spot of ground. ' My house is built 
on the brow of a hill,' said Jackson, ' and I shall 
place yours on the summit.' — ' Well,' said the 
giant, ' if you will get me a couple of millstones, 
I will grind you as much corn in one hour as 
Aquafluentes can in two : like my brother, I work 
without food or wages; but then I have an 
independent spirit, I cannot bear confinement, I 
work only when I have a mind to it, and I fol- 
low no will but my own.' — ' This is not such 
a tractable giant as Aquafluentes,' thought Jack- 
son ; ' but he is still more powerful ; so I must 
try to manage his temper as well as I can.' His 
wonderful form and the lightness of his wings 
excited great admiration. Jackson immediately 
set about building a house for him on the hill, 
to grind corn in ; and, in the mean time, Ven- 
tosus took a flight into the valley to see his 
brother. He found him carrying a heavy load 
of planks, which he had lately sawed, to their 
proprietor : they embraced each other ; and 
Ventosus, being in a good humor, said, — ' Come, 
brother, let me help you forward with your load ; 
you will never get on at this lazy pace.' — ' Lazy 
pace ! ' exclaimed one of the children, who was 
4 



50 THE THREE GIANTS. 

seated on the load of wood on the giant's "back ; 
' why, there is no man who can walk half a quarter 
as fast.' — ' True.' replied Ventosus ; * but we are 
not such little pigmies as you.' So he seated 
himself beside the child, stretched out his wings, 
and off they flew with the rapidity which at first 
terrified the boy ; but when he found he was 
quite safe, he was delighted to sail through the 
air almost as quickly as a bird flies. When they 
arrived, and the wood had been unloaded, — 
^ Now, brother,' said Aquafluentes, ' you may help 
me back again.' — ' Not I,' replied Ventosus ; 
^ I am going on, straight forward : if you choose 
to go along with me, w^ell and good ; if not, 
you may make your way home as [you please.' 
Aquafluentes thought this very unkind, and he 
began to argue with his brother ; but this only 
led to a dispute : Aquafluentes' temper at length 
grew^ ruffled ; Ventosus flew into a passion ; he 
struggled with his brother, and roared louder 
than any wild beast. Aquafluentes then lost all 
self-command, and actually foamed with rage. 
The poor child stood trembling with fear at a 
distance : he hardly knew the face of his old 
friend, so much was his countenance distorted 
by wrath ; he looked as if he could almost have 
swallowed him up. At length Ventosus disen- 
gao^ed himself from his brother, and flew out of 
his sight ; but his sighs and moans were still 



THE THREE GIANTS. 51. 

heard afar off. Aquafluentes also murmured 
loudly at the ill treatment he had received ; but he 
composed himself by degrees ; and, taking the boy 
onhisback, slowly returned home. Jackson in- 
quired eagerly after Ventosus ; and when the child 
told him all that had happened, he was much 
alarmed for fear Ventosus should never return ; 
and he was the more disappointed, as he had 
prepared everything for him to go to work. 
Ventosus, however, came back in the night ; and 
when Jackson went to set him to work in the 
morning, he found that nearly half the corn was 
already ground. This was a wonderful perform- 
ance ; yet, upon the whole, Ventosus did not 
prove of such use to the colony as his brother. 
He would carry with astonishing quickness ; but 
then, he would always carry his own way ; so 
that it was necessary to know what direction he 
intended to take before you could confide any 
goods to his charge ; and then, when you thought 
them sure to arrive on account of the rapidity 
with which they were conveyed, Ventosus would 
sometimes suddenly change his mind, and veer 
about with the fickleness of a weathercock ; so 
that the goods, instead of reaching their place 
of destination, were carried to some other place, 
or brought back to the spot whence they set out. 
This inconvenience could not happen with re- 
gard to grinding corn ; but one, of no less im- 



52 THE THREE GIANTS- 

portance, often did occur. Ventosus, when not 
inclined to work, disappeared, and was no where 
to be found. 

" The benefit derived from the labor of these 
two giants had so much improved the state of 
the colony, that, not only were the cottages well 
floored, and had good doors and window-shut- 
ters, but there was abundance of comfortable 
furniture — bedsteads, tables, chairs, chests, and 
cupboards, as many as could be wished ; and the 
men and women, now that they were reheved 
from the most laborious work, could employ 
themselves in making a number of things which, 
before, they had not time for. It was no won- 
der, therefore, that the desire to discover more 
giants was uppermost in men's minds. In reply 
to their numerous inquiries, Aquafluentes one day 
said, with a sigh, — ' I know but of one more of 
our species to be met with in this island, and that 
is a truant son of my own. It is many years 
ago since he left me ; and, from that day to this, 
I have never beheld him. His mother was of 
the tribe of Salamanders, and he always took to 
her relations more kindly than to mine ; and, one 
sultry day, as he was basking in the sunbeams, 
he rose up of a sudden and disappeared from 
my sight.' — ' Then there is little chance that 
any of us should find him,' cried the colonists, 
' he has probably left the island.' 



THE THREE GIANTS. 53 

^' Perkins, one of the most enterprising among 
them, was not wholly discouraged by this ac- 
count : he returned alone to talk to Aquafluen- 
tes about his runaway son ; and learnt that there 
was reason to believe he had not wholly aban- 
doned the island, as he was known to amuse him- 
self ^occasionally with bathing in a hot spring 
which flowed from a rock in a distant valley, 
where none of the inhabitants had ever been. 
' The fact is,' said his father, ' he takes so much 
after his mother, that he cannot hve but in a ve- 
ry high temperature. These waters are boiling 
hot ; but this only increases his vigor.' Perkins 
inquired if he was a powerful workman. ' I can 
only speak by report,' replied the father ; ' and 
from that 1 should judge that he can do more 
than I and Ventosus together: the difficulty, 
however, is to catch him and confine him, for he 
is just the reverse of Ventosus ; he will only 
work when imprisoned : then, he differs from 
both of us by being a great feeder.' — ' Oh ! ' 
exclaimed Perkins, ' if so, he loses one of his 
principal merits ; for, if he is near the size of 
either of you, it will be difficult to satisfy his ap- 
petite, and it may cost me as much to procure 
him food, as I should gain by his labor.' — ' Nev- 
er fear,' returned the giant, ^ the only food he 
takes is coals or wood, which he devours burning 
hot, and the more you give him the better he 



54 THE THREE GIANTS. 

will work, provided, as I said before, he is im- 
prisoned.' — ' But where can we meet with a 
prison large enough to enclose a giant ?' — ' Why, 
in regard to his size,' replied Aquafluentes, 
' though he sometimes reaches up to the skies, 
he can, at others, be squeezed into a very small 
compass, and the smaller the space in which you 
confine him, the harder he will work.' — ' Surely 
he cannot take a pleasure in being imprisoned,' 
said Perkins. — ^ Oh, no I' replied Aquafluentes ; 
'he works only with a view to get free; for he 
is as fond of his liberty as Ventosus.' — ' Well,' 
said Perkins, ' If you will help me, perhaps we 
might manage to get hold of him.' According- 
ly, the next morning they set out together, Per- 
kins having purchased the services of Aquafluen- 
tes by a fine ham which he took to Jobson. As 
they were on their road, Perkins quietly seated 
on the back of the giant, he inquired of him by 
what means he thought they could confine his 
son, if they should be so fortunate as to meet with 
him ? ' I have brought a vessel for that pur- 
pose,' said the giant, and showed him a bottle ; 
upon which Perkins fell a laughing, and declared 
' that he believed Aquafluentes was making game 
of him.' In a short time they arrived at the hot 
spring. As they drew near, they observed a 
great body of vapor rising from the pool. — 
' Look, look !' cried Aquafluentes, ' there he is.' 



THE THREE GIANTS. 55 

Perkins looked with great eagerness : he saw 
nothing but a cloud of steam. In a few moments, 
however, this cloud took the form of an enor- 
mous giant, whose head reached almost to the 
clouds : the figure, as it continued slowly rising, 
became more and more indistinct, till at length 
it wholly disappeared. — ' There he was, indeed !' 
exclaimed Perkins ; ' but he is gone, perhaps 
fled forever !' — ' No, no !' replied Aquafluentes ; 
^ since we know the spot he haunts, we may be 
more fortunate another time.' Another time they 
came, but no giant was to be seen. ' So much 
the better,' said Aquafluentes ; ' we must pre- 
pare to catch him when he rises ;' so he drew 
out his bottle, which he held with the mouth 
downwards over the pool, and he gave the cork 
to Perkins, charging him to thrust it into the 
bottle, as soon as he saw it filled with vapor. 
Perkins had much to do to refrain from laughing 
at the idea of squeezing a giant into a bottle ; 
however, he w^as too intent on an object of such 
importance, to venture to give way to his mirth. 
In a short time the vapor began to rise ; Aqua- 
fluentes held the bottle inverted over it, where it 
appeared thickest : it was soon filled, and well 
corked ; but Perkins could not be persuaded 
that they really were in possession of the long- 
sought treasure. ^ Well, if he is within the bot- 
tle,' said he, ' he submits to his confinement with 



56 THE THREE GIANTS. 

a very good grace ; he is as quiet as a lamb.' — 
' Never trust to that,' rephed Aquafluentes, ' he 
is cool now ; but you will see the difference by 
and by. When they got home, Aquafluentes 
told him to place him in the chimney corner as 
near the fire as possible : ' Heat is his element,' 
said he, ' and unless you contrive to keep him 
scalding hot, you will do nothing with him.' 
Perkins, in order to give his new host complete 
satisfaction, placed him in a pot of boiling water 
over the fire, when, to his utter consternation, 
the cork flew out, and he saw the figure of the 
giant, of a diminished size, come out of the bottle, 
and, increasing in dimensions as it arose, make 
its escape through the chimney. Perkins, quite 
discomforted, went to relate the disaster to Aqua- 
fluentes. ' What a trick the lad has played you !' 
said he ; ' but we will catch him again, depend 
upon it.' — ' What 's the use of catching, if we 
can't keep him ?' retorted Perkins. ' I advise 
you,' said Aquafluentes, ' to see if among the 
things saved from the wreck, there is not an iron 
or a copper vessel, which would be strong enough 
to hold him, when he is alive and active, and fit 
for work.' Perkins inquired throughout the col- 
ony, and at last found a man who had a brass 
vessel of a cylindrical form, which Perkins pur- 
chased with a pair of old shoes. ' I defy him 
to burst this,' cried Perkins, ^ it is so thick and 



THE THREE GIANTS. 57 

Strong.' — ' I have known him crack stouter ves- 
sels/ rephed the giant, ' when he is much heat- 
ed by passion ;' but, on' examining it, he said he 
thought it would serve their purpose ; for he ob- 
served, that there was a small opening closed 
with a little door. ' He will make nothing of 
lifting this door,' cried he, ' when he is violent ; 
but it is too small for him to escape by. How- 
ever, it will serve him to vent his wrath and 
keep him more temperate.' The next day off 
they posted ; succeeded in enclosing Vaporoso 
(for that was his name), as he arose from the 
boiling pool; and carried him home in triumph. 
" When Vaporoso was fairly captured, he was 
ready to come to terms with his master, and of- 
fered to do almost any sort of work he chose to 
set him to. ' But,' said he, ' it would be beneath 
my talents to grind corn or to saw planks. I can 
work a manufacture of cotton or woollen, or raise 
coals or water out of a mine.' — ' As for coals,' 
said Perkins, ' we have such abundance of wood, 
that we need give ourselves no trouble to get 
coals ; and in regard to mining of any sort, that 
is quite beyond our reach. But if it were possi- 
ble to manufacture the cotton that grows in such 
plenty in this country, it would be a great bless- 
ing ; for we are all short of shirts, and our wo- 
men, and children are half naked. So I must 
consult with the rest of them, and see if it would 



58 THE THREE GIANTS. ■ 

be possible to build some mills to spin the cot- 
ton and weave it.' This was so desirable a 
thing, that every one was ready to give his as- 
sistance to the best of his abihty. The car- 
penter, the smith, and the wheelwright were 
of essential service ; and, after much toil and 
trouble, a mill was erected. A manufacturer 
from Manchester would have laughed at it ; but 
it proved a most valuable treasure to the little 
colony ; which, by the by, continued the ped- 
lar, I ought to have told you, had increased con- 
siderably in population, as well as in wealth." — 
" Wealth 1 " interrupted Tom : " I thought you 
said they made no use of money, and did not 
care about it." — " True," replied the pedlar, 
" the wealth I speak of was the corn, and cattle, 
and vegetables, and furniture, and better houses, 
and boats with which they caught plenty offish, 
and other things without number. After a 
few years had passed over their heads, no one 
would have known the colony again, so much 
was it increased and improved. Thanks to 
Aquafluentes and Ventosus, and above all, to 
Vaporoso : not that the people were idle ; they 
had enough to do to prepare work for the 
giants, and finish it up after they had performed 
their part. Thus, the men had to build houses, 
and to make furniture, and boats, and carts, out 
of the boards which Aquafluentes sawed. Then 



THE THREE GIANTS. 59 

they were obliged to raise the corn for Ventosus 
to grind, and afterwards make It Into bread." — 
" And the women must have had plenty of work 
too," said little Betsy, " after they made cotton, 
to sew it up into gowns and petticoats for the little 
girls." — " Very true, my dear," said the old 
man ; " and the little girls helped them at this 
work ; for there was a school set up to teach the 
children to sew, and to read and write ; and the 
poor widow was the mistress of it. Then there was 
a church built, it was neither very large nor very 
handsome ; but they prayed to God in it as pious- 
ly and as sincerely as if it had been finer and rich- 
er ; and never failed to return thanks for the 
wonderful assistance he had sent them." — " But 
pray, what did the men do for coats ? " asked 
Tom ; " for theirs must have been worn out in 
time, as well as the women's petticoats ? " — 
" Oh ! " said the pedlar, " when once the manu- 
facture of cotton was found to answer, another 
for wool was set on foot ; and after that they 
raised flax, and manufactured linen ; and, built 
as many mills as they would, Vaporoso worked 
them all. At last they undertook to build a 
ship ; and then the three giants began to dispute 
which should take charge of it. — ^ It cannot 
move without my assistance,' said Aquafluentes. 
' Nay,' said Veijtosus, ^ you may support it, but 
a pretty snail's pace it will move at, unless I 



60 THE THREE GIANTS. 

perch upon the deck, and stretch out my wings ; 
and then it will fly upon the surface of the wa- 
ters.' — ^ Ay, but it must fly the way you choose 
to go,' cried Vaporoso, ' while I can take it in 
any direction they choose it to go, and at a quick- 
er rate than either of you. Aquafluentes was 
obliged to give up the point ; for though he could 
have carried a vessel as far as the mouth of a river, 
he had no power to walk on the sea. The other 
two determined to divide the charge amicably be- 
tween them. When Ventosus was in a humor to 
conduct the vessel towards the place of its destina- 
tion, he was to be captain ; but if he grew refracto- 
ry, the command was to be taken by Vaporoso. 
The colony had now an opportunity of either re- 
turning to England, or seeking the spot where it had 
at first been their intention to settle ; but, during 
the course of twenty years that they had been es- 
tablished in this desert island, they had improved 
it so much, and become so attached to it, that they 
had not the least desire to leave it. Besides, the 
young people were now growing old ; but those 
who had been born in the island, or had arrived 
there at a very early age, were curious to visit 
England, of which they had heard so much from 
their parents. They carried thither a cargo of 
goods, the produce of the island, which they 
thought would fetch a good price in England, 
and brought in return such commodities as the 



THE THREE GIANTS. 61 

colony required. Thus, manufactures and com- 
merce were established in the country, and from 
that time they went on in an almost uninterrupted 
course of prosperity. And so now I am come 
to the end of my story," cried the old man, who 
began to be out of breath with so long a narra- 
tive. " And a very pretty story it is," cried 
Tom, " with giants in plenty ! " — " But I 
should be glad to know where the sense lies ? " 
said Hopkins ; " for as it has not pleased God to 
give us such helps as you describe, I see no 
good that can come of setting us a longing for 
what we can't get, and so making us discontent- 
ed with what we have." 

" Are you sure that you have no such helps ? " 
said the old man, with an arch smile. " I could 
give you an explanation of my tale, but little 
Betsy would say it was the stupid moral at the 
end : so I think the children had better go to 
bed before I proceed." Betsy and little Jem, 
who were beginning to yawn, agreed to this ; 
but the other children all begged leave to stay 
and hear the explanation. 

" Well, then," cried the old man, '' Nature 
has, in reality, given these gigantic powers to 
assist the labors of men." The children look- 
ed around in astonishment, as if doubting whether 
they should not behold one of the giants. " Tell 
me," continued he, addressing Hopkins, '' who 



62 THE THREE GIANTS; 

is it turns the mill that saws the wood yonder ? " 

— " No one," cried Hopkins : ^' it is turned by 
a stream of water." — " And does not that stream 
of water work, without requiring either food, 
lodging, or wages ? " — <" That is true, indeed," 
replied Hopkins, scratching his head, as if to 
make the meaning enter into it the easier. " It 
is strange that never struck me before." — 
" Aquafluentes," continued the pedlar, " means 
no other than a stream of running water." — 
" Oh, that is the reason cried Jenny, " that he 
cleaned the house, and washed the children, and 
taught them to swim ; but I do not understand 
how running water can fetch and carry cargoes 
of wood and other things, as Aquafluentes did." 

— «' Why, in a boat," said Tom, " no doubt : 
don't you remember they placed a large shallow 
box on his back, to hold things in : what was 
that but a boat ? " — " Ay, true," replied Jenny ; 
" and the long pole or staif to make the giant go 
on, must have been an oar." — " Well, it must 
be confessed," said Hopkins, " there is as much 
truth as fiction in your tale." 

" Then Ventosus," continued the pedlar . . . 
" Oh, stop," cried Tom, interrupting him ; " let 
me try to guess what Ventosus means." After 
thinking awhile, he exclaimed, — " I do think 
Ventosus must be the wind ; because, w^hen he 
quarrels with his brother, Aquafluentes, he makes 



THE THREE GIANTS. 63 

the waves rage, and swell, and foam. Oh, it is 
certainly the wind which turns the mill to grind 
the corn." — "True," said Hopkins, thoughtful- 
ly ; " the wind is another gigantic power in na- 
ture for which we have never thought of being 
thankful. Well, my good friend," continued he, 
" your story has taught me that we possess bless- 
ings I little thought of; and I hope it will teach 
us to be grateful for them. But what is the third 
power, which is more able than the other two ? " 
— " It is one you know less of, — it is steam ; 
which, confined in the cylinder of the steam-en- 
gine, sets all our manufactures in motion. As it 
rises from boiling water, I have called it the son 
of water and of fire or heat. It is now, you 
know, applied to vessels at sea, acting always 
steadily and regularly, while the wind is not un- 
der our command. But, observe," said the ped- 
lar, " though these powers do so much for men, 
they do not take the work out of tlieir hands : on 
the contrary, when the mills or manufactures 
thrive, they give them more to do. It was the 
giant Vaporoso that introduced the -cotton mills 
in this village, which gives so much work to all 
the folks in the neighborhood ; andif Ventosus did 
not grind the corn, depend upon it there would not 
be half so much raised ; no, nor near so many 
bakers : for, when men were obliged to bruise 



64 THE THREE GIANTS 

their corn themselves, it would take up the time 
which they can now give to sowing and reaping 
it.'' — " Nor would there be so many floored 
cottages, and doors, and window shutters, and ta- 
bles, and chairs," said Tom (proud to show that 
he had not forgotten the number of articles men- 
tioned in the tale), ''if Aquafluentes had not 
been such a capital sawyer of wood." — -'Well, 
but," said Dame Hopkins, who hitherto had 
made no remark, for, being busied about her do- 
mestic affairs, she had not heard above half the 
story, " if these giants do but make men work the 
more, I can't see what good they do them." — 
" Why, wife," answered Hopkins, " we don't 
wan't to be idle ; but we want to earn a com- 
fortable livelihood by our work ; and I see now, 
that, if it were not for the help of these powers 
which nature has given us (and we must have 
been as blind as buzzards not to have observed 
them before), our cottage would have been un- 
floored, we should have had neither bedstead to 
lie on, chair to sit on, or table to eat off; and, 
what 's worse still, a sad scarcity of bread to set 
on the table at meals. We have now the pro- 
duce of our own work and of theirs also ; and, 
as they do a hundred times more work than we 
can, why, w^e get a hundred times more food and 
clothing, and comforts of one kind or other." 



THE TH&EB GIANTS. 65 



" -Ay," said Jenny ; " where should we have 
got our cotton gowns and petticoats, or you 
your shirt, Tom, if Vaporoso had not set the 
cotton mills a-going ? " — '^ Well," said Hopkins, 
snuffing up the air, '^ I smell the smell of sup- 
per. I see my good woman has been busy to 
some purpose." — '' Ay, and it 's all the work 
of my own hands," said she : '^ none of your 
giants have had anything to do with it." But 
the pedlar, who stood up, for the credit of his 
giants, replied, — "By your leave, mistress, I 
think you are mistaken. These potatoes could 
never have been so well boiled without .the help 
of steam ; nor would the iron, of which the pot 
is made, have been so easily got out of the 
mine, without the use of a steam-engine." — 
" I think that truant young giant is the greatest 
favorite of yours," said Hopkins, " of the three." 
— " Not whe,n he was running wild about the 
country," replied the pedlar ; " but, after he was 
reclaimed, and took to working, he certainly did 
more than the other two." — "And, mother, 
who ground the corn that made this bread ? " 
cried Tom, archly. "And I doubt whether 
Ventosus had not some hand in bringing this su- 
gar over the seas from foreign parts," said Hop- 
kins. "Well, well, come in and eat," cried the 
good dame a little angry that she did but half 
understand the meaning of the story, which 
6 



66 THE THREE GIANTS. 

seemed to be more attended to than her supper. 
So they all went in laughing and joking, and sat 
down to a comfortable meal ; which, in spite of 
all the credit the good dame claimed for her cook- 
ing, they declared she could not have brought to 
the table without the help of Aquafluentes, Ven- 
tosus, and Vaporoso. 



POPULATION, he. 



THE OLD WORLD. 



" Father," said Tom the next morning to 
Hopkins, " I can't, for the hfe of me, make out 
why we are so poor in old England : for the real 
giants work much more for us here than they did 
for the folks in the desert island. What is a sin- 
gle water-mill, and a single wind-mill, and such 
a bit of a factory as they set up, compared to all 
those we have here ? And yet they lived in 
plenty, while we are often half starved." 

" Their island was but a nut-shell to ours," 
cried Hopkins ; " and there were but a few of 
them in it ; and so the single water-mill, and 
wind-mill, and bit of a factory, as you call it, did 
all. the work they wanted; while here, we are 
too many by half for all the mills and factories in 
the kingdom." 

" Well, then we have nothing to do but 



68 POPULATION, ETC. J 

to build more ; there 's no want of hands with 
us." 

" Ay, but you must have wherewithal to pay 
the builders ; and money runs short among so 
many." 

" It can't run shorter than it did in the isl- 
and," replied Tom ; " for they had but one 
pursefull that I heard of, and that they made no 
use of. So why cannot you build without money 
here, as well as they did there ? you need only 
feed the workmen, instead of paying them wa- 
ges." — " That 's all one," said Hopkins ; " feed 
and clothe the workmen, or pay them wages 
comes to the same thing : and if food and cloth- 
ing run short, the factory cannot be built, nor 
worked, if it were built. The fault lies in there 
being more people here than there is food to 
maintain, clothes to cover, or houses to lodge 
them. There 's your mother there has had six- 
teen children ; and God knows we have never had 
wherewithal to bring up half that number. But 
you are too young for these matters, Tom, so be 
off to your work, and don't stand idling here." 

When Tom was gone, his mother said, — 
" Ay, its very hard that I, who have brought 
sixteen children into the world, and worked, as 
one may say, day and night, should not be able 
to give them clothes to their backs, nor a hearty 
meal of wholesome food ; no, nor a bit of learn- 



OR, THE OLD WORLD. 69 

ing to lift them on in the world. You know 
what a hard matter we have had to place out 
Dick and Nance ; and now that I am looking out 
for Jenny, there is nothing to be had. I sent 
her after Farmer Wilkin's place, but there were 
no less than six girls about it already ; so they 
underbid each other, and one of them got it, 
who offered to go for nothing more than her 
board and a pair of shoes a year." 

" That is because there are more girls than 
places for them/* said John. 

" Well, and what is to be done with them at 
home is more than I can tell ! Why^ there is 
Jenny gets such an appetite now-a-days, there is 
no satisfying her. She would be willing enough 
to earn the bread she eats, if she knew but 
how ; but they won't take her in at the mills, 
and there is no want of hands at the factory." — 
^' That is because there are more hands to work 
than work to be done,^" replied her husband. — 
" Don't be telling me of your 'cause this, and 
'cause t'other," cried the impatient wife ; " but 
tell me, what is much more to the purpose, how 
am I to get bread to put into my children's 
mouths ?" But John said, with a sigh, that was 
more than he could tell. 

^' But I suppose you can tell the cause ?" re- 
torted his discontented wife. — '' Yes, that is 
easy enough," replied John ; " there are more 



70 POPULATION, ETC.; 

mouths to be fed than there is bread to feed 
them." — " Well, and where is the remedy ?" — 
" That is a harder matter, wife. Now we have 
the children, we must make the best of it we 
can, and divide what we have among them ; 
but if you had not had such a swarm of brats, 
we should all have fared better. Look at neigh- 
bor Fairburn's ; why, they never want for any 
thing!" — "Ay, that is true enough," replied his 
wife ; " there was his Sukey at church last Sun- 
day in as neat a cotton gown as I would wish to 
set eyes on : and, God forgive me ! I could not 
but cast a look of envy on it, when I compared 
it with our own poor girls' patched rags. Well, 
I remember the time, when Patty there was but 
a little one, she had as good a gown to her back 
as Sukey Fairburn ; but times are sadly chang- 
ed now !" — " As for that matter, dame," cried 
John, " cotton gowns are a great deal cheaper 
now than they were then ; but you have had 
thirteen children since, Patty ; so it is no wonder 
you can't give them a new gown so often, even 
though you may buy the cotton at half price. 
When we had only three children, why, it was 
natural -we should do as well as Fairburn does 
with his three, for both he and I get the same 
wages ; but when you come to divide among 
three, or among sixteen, there is a wide differ- 
ence." — " Nay, but you know, John, we never 



OR, THE OLD WORLD. 71 

had sixteen alive at once, nor near," cried the 
wife. — " That is true," said he; "but so many 
dying, is but a proof we had more than we could 
rear. If you and I had not married till the time 
of life Fairburn and his wife did, we should not 
have been troubled with such a monstrous fami- 
ly." The good dame, who could not bear any 
reflection being cast on the number of her chil- 
dren, and yet was at a loss for an argument in 
its favor, said coaxingly to her husband — "Well, 
but, John, you know the proverb says, ' The 
more the merrier.'" — "Ay, but you forget 
what follows, wife, — ' The fewer the better 
cheer.' " 

John then went on to show that if the labor- 
ers took care to have small famihes, they would 
gain another and a still greater advantage ; not 
only would they have fewer children to clothe 
and feed, and therefore their money would go 
farther, but also their wages would necessarily be 
higher. The rich^ instead of having too many 
workmen, would have too few. His wife thought 
that this would not mend matters, for that the 
fewer the laborers, the more work would each 
have to do. But John replied very properly, 
" Nay, nay, we are not slaves, and cannot be 
forced to work more than we are willing. Now," 
continued he, " if we were fewer in number, the 
rich would be looking out for workmen, instead 



72 POPULATION, ETC ; 

of workmen looking out for employers, as is the 
case now. And if there w ere a want of hands in- 
stead of a want of work, those who wanted work 
to be done would be ready enough to pay high- 
er w^ages. We might say to our employers, * If 
you do not choose to give us a better price for 
our labor, we will go elsewhere to others who 
will.' But if any of us were to say that now, 
when there are so many all wanting employment, 
we should starve in idleness, for others would 
consent to work at the low prices which w^e had 
refused." 

" I can't think the rich would ever allow us to 
fix our own price," said the wife ; " for they 
are wiser, by far than we are, and they are 
mighty clever at having things their own way. 
They would get a law made to forbid the raising 
of w^ages, mayhap ! It is true, as you say, they 
can't oblige us to work, but they may oblige us 
by law^ to take low wages, if w^e do w^ork, and 
you know well enough we can't live w^ithout it." 
— ^' There 's no doubt of that," replied John ; 
" and it reminds me, that when I went to pay the 
last quarter's schooling, I found the master mus- 
ing over an old book, and he bade me stop to 
hear what it said ; for that it was a curious thing, 
and concerned the laboring people ; and moreo- 
ver that it was true. Well, as far as I can re- 
collect, he read that once upon a time there was 



OR, THE OLD WORLD. tS 

a mortal disease fell upon the people of England, 
called the plague, and that as many as half of 
them died of it." — " Poor creatures !" exclaim- 
ed the wife, in a tone of compassion, " how 
shocking !" Then, after a little thought, she 
added, " Laborers must have been scarce enough 
then, God knows !" — " Well," continued John, 
" the book went on to say, that those who sur- 
vived took advantage of their numbers being re- 
duced, to ask higher wages." — " Ay, but there 
is one thing I can't understand," said the wife ; 
why should there be a call for more laborers ? 
for if there were fewer poor folks to labor, there 
were fewer rich folks to labor for ; for the plague 
is no respecter of persons, and falls on the rich 
as well as the poor, as we read in the Bible it 
did in the time of Pharaoh." — " Sure enough," 
replied John ; " but then the rich can pay for 
doctor's stuff, and all manner of things to help 
them through it ; so more of them are likely to 
recover than of the poor, who are pent up in 
their small cottages, and have no money to pay 
nurses or doctors. However, there is no doubt 
but that many of the rich died too. But look 
ye, wife, when they go down to the grave, their 
riches are not buried with them ; no, no, that re- 
mains above ground, and goes to their friends 
and relations ; so you see the plague did not 
take the money, and there was not less of that 



74 POUULATION, ETC.; 

in the land, though there were fewer people. 
Now mind ye, wife, it is wealth that sets the 
people to work, So if h^lf the rich folk had 
died, others would have come in for their wealth ; 
and these, becoming so much richer than they 
were before, would have wanted more people to 
work for them." 

"They might loant and welcome," said the 
wife ; " but how could tliey get them if they 
were dead?" — ''And it is just because they 
cannot get those who died, that those the}' can 
get (I mean those who survived) are sure to get 
higher wages ; for, as I said before, when labor- 
ers are scai'ce, the rich ai'e ready enough to pay 
them high wages. But the book went on to say, 
that when the King who reigned in those times 
heard that his subjects would not work without 
higher wages, he fell into a rage, and made a law 
such as you were thinking of, wife, to forbid, un- 
der severe pains and penalties, that the poor 
should take higher wages than they had before 
the plague." — " Why, then, I think he was no 
better than a tyrant, to hinder the poor from get- 
ting what they fairly could : he must hav^e been 
quite another sort of man from our good King 
William." — "That he was," said John; "but 
it would not do ; and after a hard struggle, the 
King was obhged to give in, and the people got 
the wages they asked." 



OR, THE OLD WORLD. 75 

" Well, but I do not know how it is," said his 
wife, after a pause, " my mind sadly misgives 
me about high wages ever since the Fairy's wand 
brought on such a train of ill luck, that w^e so 
Httle looked for.'- — " That was because the 
high wages then was not the natural rate of wa- 
ges, as one might say. The Fairy forced wages 
up, and had no better success than the King's 
law to force wages down ; but you see, wife, that 
the nature of things is stronger than King's laws 
or Fairies' wands ; and that when the number of 
laborers was so much lessened by the plague, it 
was quite natural that the wages should be high, 
and so they were, without any ill luck coming 
of it." 

" Well, for my part, I can't see the difference," 
said the good dame. " Why should not the 
manufacturers send away half their workmen 
when wages rise after the plague, just as they 
did when the Fairy's wand did the business." 

" Mercy on me," cried John, "how thick- 
headed you are, wife ! Don't you see that half 
of them are sent away already by the plague in- 
to their coffins ? so, instead of discharging any 
more, they must pay high wages if they wish to 
keep those that remain ; for when laborers are 
scarce, and there is a great demand for them, 
they won't work without good pay." 

"Then," said his wife, returning to her favor- 



76 POPULATION, ETC. ; 

ite subject, " when the laboring people were so 
well off they might marry young, for they could 
afford to provide for a large family if they chanc- 
ed to have one." John readily agreed lo this, 
observing, at the same time, " that people must 
take care, however, not to overshoot the mark ; 
for that if they increased and multiphed so much, 
that in the end the market were again overstock- 
ed with laborers, wages would naturally lower 
again, and then the poor would be in no better 
plight than they were before the plague. And 
that is the plight we are in now," continued 
John. " But God forbid that a plague should 
ever come to thin our ranks !" — " Heaven pre- 
serve us from it !" cried his wife ; '^ for though 
those that outlive it may fare the better, who 
knows, John, that you and I should escape with 
our lives ; and I '11 promise you," added she, with 
a look of affright, " it would snatch away some 
of the children that are still left to us." 

" Ay, I trust the plague will never return ; but 
we may learn a lesson from that which is past, 
though it be so many years back. For we may 
be sure that if we have but small, or at least mod- 
erate sized families, in the course of a few years 
it will bring about the same good to the working 
people." 

" To be sure," said his wife, " If there had 
been only one or two girls after Farmer Wil- 



OR, THE OLD WOKLD. , 77 

kin's place, Jenny would have stood a much 
better chance of getting it, and perhaps have 
had two or three guineas wages ; for if girls were 
scarce, they would not be so simple as to be sat- 
isfied with their board and a pair of shoes." 

" Well, dame, the country is like our family, 
there are too many of them for every one to get 
a hvehhood." — "God help the country ! " cried 
the wife ; "it is more than we can do to help 
ourselves." — " Why, what is a country made 
up of, but of families like ours ? " said John. — 
"And if every family had taken care of them- 
selves, there would have been no distress in the 
country. When God has given us hands to la- 
bor with, and heads with common sense to teach 
us what we ought to do, we have no reason to 
complain, and it is our own fault if we do not 
guard against poverty by prudence and saving. 
We ought not to have married so young, and 
then we should not have been troubled with so 
large a family. But what is done can't be un- 
done, only it should serve as a warning against 
another time." 

" We are little likely to marry again, either of 
us," said his wife ; " and if we did, sure enough 
it would not be over young." 

" I was not thinking of you and me, wife, but 
of the young ones. There is our boy, George, 
who is but two and twenty, hankering after 



78 POPULATION, ETC.} 

Betsy Bloomfield, and she is but nineteen. 
Now, George has not a farthing more than the 
labor of his hands to support her and the dozen 
of children they are likely to have at those years. 
I say, I will not hear of it. George must work 
hard and lay up something before he marries the 
girl. And let her go to service, and get some- 
thing to lay by too ; and then, when they have 
a little money in hand, and a few more years 
over their heads, they may come together with- 
out harm." 

" Mercy on us ! what will they say to that ? 
it will be a hard thing upon them, John." 

'' But it would be harder still upon their chil- 
dren, if we let them marry so young. They 
would be half starved, and rickety, and breed all 
sorts of distempers, and so they would die off, 
and be an affliction instead of blessing to their 
parents." 

'^ Ah ! " said the good woman, heaving a 
sigh, *' like our poor babes." Then, after a 
pause of painful remembrance, she added, — 
" But one of them, you know, John, was car- 
ried off by the measles, and that is not bred by 
lack of good food, but comes of the will of God." 

" Yes," returned John ; " but if it had not 
been a poor weakly thing, it might have got 
through the measles as well as the rest of them. 
Why, to be sure, none of them died of starva- 



OR, TiPE OLD WORLD. 79 

tlon ; but who knows but that they might all 
have lived, had they been reared in plenty? ^' 

" Alack ! " said the poor woman, drawing the 
back of her hand across her eyes ; " it was not 
so much their deaths I minded, for I knew they 
would want for nothing in a better world ; but it 
was their puling and crying when they were alive, 
as if they had not a moment's peace, poor babes ! 
They were a sore trouble to me ; and the more 
I loved them, the harder it was to bear. One 
while," continued the poor woman, " we lost our 
children by the small-pox ; and when the cow- 
pox was found out, I thought they would be 
safe ; but they went off the same, one by one 
sickness, another by another ; so I can't but think, 
husband, that it is the will of God that poor 
babes should drop off, as the blossom drops from 
the trees ; for it never all comes to fruit." 

" It is the will of God," answered John, " that 
children should die if their parents do not pro- 
vide for them so that they may live. And when 
there is no small-pox, why, the sickly ones are 
carried off by the measles or hooping-cough ; 
nay, even a cold will do the work : for die some 
of them must, when there is not food to rear 
them all." 

" Nay, John, I can't bear to hear you talk 
after that fashion. It seems for all the world as 
if you thought their dying a good riddance." 



80 POPULATION, ^TC. ; 

" No ; but I think it a sin and a shame to bring 
children into the world just to suffer, and send 
them out of it. First a cradle, and then a coffin ; 
and little else between than fretting. But, at 
least, let us have no grandchildren born to die 
off in that way : we must live and learn, or we 
shall hve to little purpose. So get Betsy Bloom- 
field a service as soon as you can." 

" Well," said Dame Hopkins, after a little 
thought, " there is the Squire's lady was here last 
week, in want of a girl for her nursery. I beg- 
ged hard for our Jenny ; it would have been the 
making of her ; but it was lost labor, for the lady 
would have it she was too yonng. She cast an 
eye upon Patty, there," added she, in a half 
whisper ; " but I told the lady she had other 
thoughts in her head. Now this place w^ould 
just suit Betsy, who is a nice tidy body, and has 
reared up her brothers and sisters, and is fit for 
a nursery." 

John turned towards his daughter Patty, who 
was sitting by the casement window, sewing. 
When she saw that her father observed her, a 
blush came over her face ; for she could not con- 
ceal the tears that were trickling down her 
cheeks. " Hey-day, w^hat is to do, now ? " cried 
he ; " have you and Tom Barton had a lovers' 
quarrel ? Never fear, girl, you will soon make it 
up again." — " Oh no," cried Patty, " he never 



OR, THE OLD WORLD. 81 

gives me so much as a cross word ; but I have 
heard all you have been saying, and I am no 
older, you know, than Betsy ; nay, even younger 
by three months ; so I suppose," added she, sob- 
bing, " I must give up the wedding, and think of 
going out to service as well as Betsy." 

" Hey, never take on so child," cried the 
father ; " that is quite another thing : Barton is 
able to support you ; ay, and as many brats as 
you may chance to have. He has neither kith 
nor kin ; and his father has left him the shop, and 
all the stock in trade, and a good lot of money 
beside ; so there is no harm can come of your 
marrying him. Quite the reverse, you see, 
deary, for you are a burthen upon us, who have 
so many of your brothers and sisters to maintain." 
Patty cast up her tearful eyes, which seemed to 
complain that she should be thought a burthen. 
The mother, who understood her looks, said, 
" Your father does not mean that we shall be 
glad to be rid of you, Patty : nay, nay, child ; 
but we shall be glad to see you happy, and to 
have your share of the meals to give to your 
brothers and sisters." 

Patty brightened up at these words ; but a 
cloud again passed over her brow as she thought 
of poor Betsy. 



EMIGRATION 



A NEW WORLD. 



Hopkins's wife, as we have seen, loved her 
children tenderly ; and, hard as it was to main- 
tain them, she could not bring her mind to re- 
gret that she had so large a family ; for there 
was not one of them she would have hked to 
part with. ''Dick and Nancy," thought she, 
" earn their own livelihood, so they are none too 
many for us ; and I had trouble enough to let 
them go so far away. Then Patty is soon to be 
married, and it will be hard to part with her even 
to a good husband, fond as the girl is of him ; 
and well she may, for one may go far and near 
and not meet with the like. Jenny and Tom, 
to be sure, are growing so fast, they are enough 
to eat us out of house and home ; but then it 
does one good to see them so hearty ; and they 
will be the better able to work, when they can 
get anything to do. Betsy eats but little, as yet, 



A NEW WORLD. 83 

and is so healthy that she gives one no trouble. 
Then, as to my poor little darling Jemmy, he is 
but an ailing child, I must own ; but I love him 
the better for all the care he gives me ; and 
many a heartache have I had for fear I.should not 
rear him." So the good woman went on, num- 
bering up the qualities which endeared her chil- 
dren to her. At length, addressing herself to 
her husband, she said, with a sigh, — " What a 
pity 't is, John, that the world is not a little 
wider, that there might be room, and work, and 
food for us all." 

" As for that matter," cried Hopkins, the 
world is big enough, in all conscience ; it 's only 
Old England that 's a bit of the smallest for the 
lots of people it has to hold. Why, there are 
some countries, as they tell me, that want work- 
men. America, they say, is too large by half 
for the folks that live in it ; and ship loads of 
people go over there, becauce there 's a scarcity 
of hands, and wages run high. They go such 
lengths as to say, that the more children you 
have there, the better you are off. They are no 
burthen there ; for, as soon as ever they can do 
any sort of work, they are sure to get it, and a 
good pennyworth by it. I 've heard, that a wid- 
ow woman, with a large family, is counted a 
prize there, and will get a second husband as 
soon as ever she chooses." — " Then they may 



84 EMIGRATION; OR, 

marry young in those parts ? " said his wife. 
— " No doubt ; the sooner the better," repHed 
Hopkins : " they tell me the country swarms 
with children, all living in plenty." — " That 's a 
fine thing," said the dame ; " but yet it would 
be hard to leave one's own country, where one 
has been bred and bom ; it is like leaving father 
and mother. Besides, husband," added she, 
after a thoughtful pause, " if such numbers of 
poor go over to America, it will soon be stocked 
full ; and then they will be in no better plight 
there than they are here." — " Bless you," cried 
John, " it is not so easy to fill America with peo- 
ple. 1 Ve heard a deal about it from the mate 
of the ship at Liverpool, which takes them over 
the sea ; he calls it emigrations^ 

" Emigration !" repeated the wife ; " why, 
one would think they were sent across the seas 
for some crime, it sounds so like transporta- 
tion." 

" What matters the sound," cried John, " when 
it 's quite another thing ?" 

" Well, but do, John, tell me all about it," 
said she coaxingly, to her husband. 

" Why, what can you understand of these 
matters ?" rephed he. But he was a kind-heart- 
ed husband, and let his wife have her way when 
she was not unreasonable ; so he told- her "that 
America was so large, that the mate said it would 



A NEW WORLD. 85 

take a thousand years, and more, to fill it with 
people, like Old England. There is so much 
land there, that it may be had for asking ; and 
those who engage to cultivate it may get as many 
acres as they choose. And most of those who 
go over, the mate says, won't stay in the towns 
and work for the high wages they could get there, 
but take their goods and chattels, and go up the 
country, and settle in a farm of their own." 

" A farm of their own !" exclaimed the wife, 
" lack o' day ; if our landlord would but give us 
one poor acre by our cottage, how happy we 
should be !" 

John began to fear his wife might take a fancy 
to go over to America, so he added, — " It 's not 
all so smooth and easy as you may think, wife. 
First, there 's such tossing to and fro on the salt 
seas, and they are all sick to death before they 
get there. And wdien they are landed, and go up 
the country and choose their ground, there are 
no farm houses, no barns, no ricks, no live stock ; 
no, not even fields ready for them, meadow or 
arable, nothing but woods without end." — 
" And are there no wild beasts in those woods ?" 
asked the good woman, timidly. — " Why, not 
many of them, I believe," replied Hopkins ; " but 
plenty of snakes and reptiles, and such hke. 
Well, the first thing they have to do is to cut 
down the trees, and clear them away before they 



»b EMIGRATION; OR, 

can sow their seed ; and then they are obhged to 
build themselves log houses to live in, and make 
a shift for furniture. Then they must carry their 
tools with them to work with, and some few 
pots and kettles, for you find none of those things 
in the woods. So, you see, there 's a deal to 
be done before you can settle comfortably." — "I 
wonder," said his wife, " that when poor men are 
turned off at the factory, and can't find work, and 
those, too, ^vho can no longer get a livelihood by 
the hand loom, do not pack up their all and go 
over to America. 

" How should they ?" cried Hopkins : " they 
have not wherewithal to pay their passage. The 
captain won't take them over for nothing, and 
feed them while aboard the ship. And it's well 
for them that he won't, for America would not 
suit such people as these. Set a weaver to cut 
down a tree ! why he knows no more about it 
than a child, and he would be a week at it. Then 
he would never get a log house over his head be- 
fore the winter set in, and starved him outright. 
They who have been used to the closeness of the 
factory by day, and to sleep four or five in a 
room by night, why they would perish in the 
wild woods, with no one near them for miles 
around." — " Well, but," said she, " there must 
be firing in plenty to keep them warm : no one 
to forbid their picking up the dry sticks, nor pull- 



A NEW WORLD. 87 

ing down a branch when they wanted it."^ — " Sure 
euough, they will not want fuel," replied he ; 
" it 's easy enough to boil the pot, but not so 
sure of having something to put into it. Now 
your country folks, that have been used to out- 
door work, get through hardships much better 
than the factory men, who have been mewed up 
all their days like chickens in a coop. Why, 
the first time they slept out in those woods they 
would be sure to get the ague ; and then who is 
to work for them ? No such plenty of hands 
there. No, it is only fit for folks who are used 
to hard out-of-doors labor ; and it won't do for 
them either, unless they have some httle proper- 
ty to set them agoing ; for, besides taking so ma- 
ny things with them, they must have a supply of 
food till they can get their crops in, or they 
would run some chance of being starved. That 
has happened to more than one who has gone 
without forethought. They say a whole col- 
ony has sometimes been cut off by famine and 
sickness, before they could get in their first har- 
vest." — " Why, I can't well make out what you 
mean, husband ; first you are after saying Amer- 
ica's such a fine place that it almost made my 
mouth water ; and then you talk of so many 
hardships and difficulties, that I would not ven- 
ture there for the world." — *' Why there 's both 
good and bad in it," replied Hopkins : " a hard 



88 EMIGRATION j OR, 

working man, with no ailments about him, and 
able to pay his passage, or get it paid for him, 
and with money enough to buy the tools he 
wants, may find it answer ; ay, and become a 
wealthy farmer after some years, and bring up 
his family in peace and plenty : but he will al- 
ways meet with difficulties at first, such as would 
knock up your indoor men in no time." 

" But then you say that in towns wages are 
high, and the men from the factory might get 
employment there." 

"Ay, a good handy carpenter, or wheel- 
wright, they tell me, can earn as much as a dol- 
lar a day, and that 's more than four shillings." 

" Mercy o^ me !" exclaimed the wife, " what 
a sum !" 

" But," added he, " these fellows from the 
factory, or the hand loom, who have done no- 
thing else all their lives, would be mighty awk- 
ward at any other work." 

" They might work in the factories in Amer- 
ica, as there is such want of hands : their pay at 
the factories must be worth having." 

" They have scarcely any factories in Amer- 
ica," replied Hopkins, " being all so busy in till- 
ino^ the ground." 

" Then what do they do for clothes ?" quoth 
she. 

" Oh, they mostly come from England. For, 



A NEW WORLD. 89 

look ye, they have such loads of com that they 
would not know what to do with it, if they did 
not send it over here, where, God knows, we are 
short enough of it : so then they get, in return, 
our Manchester cotton, and Leeds cloth, and 
Birmingham hardware, and whatever else they 
may want. Corn is their money, as one may 
say, for it pays for every thing." 

*' It must be a rare place for poachers," obser- 
ved the dame ; " for I suppose there 's plenty 
of game in those great woods, and corn to fatten 
them, and no one to hinder them killing as ma- 
ny as they can catch." 

'^ It 's no use killing more than you can eat, for 
there is no one to sell it to. But it is a good 
thing to know how to handle a gun ; for you 
may knock down the birds in no time, and so 
keep the pot a boiling ; and, indeed, that is what 
a man must mainly depend upon till his crops 
come in." 

" Then there must be some wild fruits," said 
the dame ; " and, mayhap, they might pick a 
salad of one sort or other to eat with the 
birds." 

" Ay, but they will be better off when they 
get a bit of garden about their log-house, and 
a plot of potatoes and cabbages of their own." 

" There 's too much danger, one way or 
other," said his wife ; " better stay at home. " 



90 EMIGRATION-: OR, * 

" If you can earn a living at home," said Hop- 
kins ; " if not, in ray mind, it 's better to seek 
your fortune abroad, than to be half starved, or 
go to the parish." 

" But then they should not go like ninnies, 
not knovv^ing what to provide or what to expect ; 
and it is easy enough to know, by asking those 
that do." — " They say that sometime the gov- 
ernment, or the parish, will lend a helping hand, 
and pay their passage, or supply them with the 
needful, to prevent their becoming a burthen 
upon the parish." 

" They owe them no great thanks for that, if 
it is just to get rid of them." 

" Nay, but it is their own wish, wife, else they 
would not go ; and if they go prudently provid- 
ed for, that is to say, able to do for themselves 
till they can get in their crops, when once that is 
done, they will get on swimmingly." — "And 
why should we not do so in England ?" said his 
wife. — ''For the best of all reasons," replied 
he ; " because the land in England is all culti- 
vated already." — " Nay, how can you say that, 
husband, when you know there 's Broom Heath, 
not half a mile off, that is all a barren waste ?" — 
" And why is it so ? but because it is not worth 
the cultivating." — "It is true," said his wife, 
" the soil may not be so good as the field you 
were ploughing the other day, that gives such 



A NEW WORLD. 91 

heavy crops. But if it was well ploughed and 
sown, surely it would yield something ? And 
any thing is better than nothing, you know, John ; 
if it was but even enough to make a score of 
loaves, why there would be a score more than 
there was before." — " Ay, but when the soil is 
so bad, the ploughing, and dunging, and seed 
corn, and reaping, would cost more than the corn 
would sell for at market ; and who will be such 
a fool as to raise corn which costs him more than 
it will fetch at market ? Undertake a concern 
that brings in a loss instead of a gain ? not I, faith. 
Why, if they gave me the land free of cost, as 
they do in America, I would not say thank you 
for it." 

'* Well, but you know it sometimes answers to 
take in commons, John," said she ; " there 's 
Ashdown Common, that was parcelled out among 
the parish." 

" Ay, that 's a better soil : it grew grass, and 
the parish fed their cattle and sheep on it before 
it was parcelled out. So their crops are not all 
clear gain, for they have lost the pasture now 
that it is turned into arable land." 

'^ Yes," rephed his wife, " I have heard neigh- 
bor Partridge say, she has often sorrowed for 
the loss of the milk her httle ones got when her 
dappled cow fed on the common ; yet, upon the 
whole, she owned they were better off now. 



92 EMIGRATION j OR, 

' My husband,' said she, ' makes more by his five 
acres now, than he could get by the cow former- 
ly ; and though I am sorry poor Biddy is gone, 
the money she sold for bought us a bit of good 
dung for the land ; which was so poor, that the 
seed put into it would have been as good as lost 
without it.' " 

" There is farmer Stubbs, said Hopkins, " who 
had a good big slice of the common (for he 
bought up the shares of some of the poor par- 
ishioners, who had not the means to cultivate 
it.) Well, he says as how he was obliged to lay 
so much dung on it, that he had not enough for 
his ow^n farm ; and he thinks he has lost as much 
by injuring the crops of his old land, as he has 
gained by that of the new. For it is but a poor 
crop after all. Then to think of the labor it cost 
him ; why, there were more men at work on that 
bit of ground than there was to raise twice the 
quantity of corn on the old land ; and it is small 
encouragement to have to work harder and get 
less. However, he expects it will do better 
next year, and pay him in time. And look ye, 
wife, I don't pretend for to say, that it will not 
answer to turn up any common or waste." — 
•^ No, that you can't," returned she ; " for you 
know that when we got leave to take in that bit 
of a bank by the road-side into our garden, what 
a pretty crop of potatoes it gave us." 



A NEW WORLD. 93 

" That It did ; but you may remember, dame, 
how you complained of the cabbages that same 
season. And why did they fail? Just because 
they were stinted of manure ; for T was obliged 
to lay some of it on the new land, before I plant- 
ed my potatoes. So you see, after all, it was 
robbing Peter to pay Paul, as the saying is. 
However, the bit of ground is not bad, and it 
will answer in the end. But, as I said before, 
you must not reckon all you get from new land 
as clear gain, on account of the outlay." — 
" And what do they do to manure the land in 
America ? " said the wife : '' it must want it sad- 
ly, never having had a morsel laid on since it was 
created." 

'^ If there has been no manure laid on, there 
have been no crops taken out of it," said Hop- 
kins ; and so the soil has never had any work to 
wear it out." 

"No more has a common, when it is first 
ploughed up," quoth she. 

"That's true enough; but then think, what 
are the commons and heaths of Old England ? 
They are just nothing but the poorest land that 
is neglected, after all the better soils are taken 
into cultivation. Now see the difference in 
America. It 's a large country, with very little 
of it cultivated : — the land lies before you, and 
you have only to pick and choose ; if one spot 



94 ' EMIGRATION ; OR, 

don't please you, why, another will. Besides, 
the land so far from being poor, the mate swears, 
is as fine a soil as you could wish to see ; and 
instead of wanting manure, when first it 's turned 
up, it w^ill yield crops for many years without 
having any thing at all put upon it. 

That seems very strange to us here,^' cried 
the dame. — "And well it may, because all the 
good land was turned up, and cultivated ages 
ago : it is natural enough to choose the best first, 
and then when all the best is cultivated, why, 
you must take up with the second best ; and 
after that, with land of the third quality, and so 
on, worse and worse, till you come to the poorest 
land of all ; and that is all we have left now," 
quoth he, " that is not cultivated. So, if you 
turn up that, you must needs humour it and give 
it a bit of good stuff, and make much of it, if 
you expect it to pay you. But those woods in 
America, that have grown time out of mind, 
since the beginning of the world for ought we 

know " " Nay," interrupted his wife, " it 

can but have been but since Noah's time, for 
those woods must have been all destroyed by the 
flood." — " Well, well," retorted he, impatient- 
ly ; " they have had time enough in all con- 
science to grow since the flood — but you have 
put it out of my head what the ship's mate told 
me." Then, after recollecting himself, he w^ent 



A NEW WORLD. 95 

on. " These same trees, d' ye see, shed their 
leaves every year, and there they lie on the 
ground, for the^re is no one to meddle with them. 
So when the rain comes they are well soaked, 
and they become manure as it were, and help to 
nourish the soil ; and when once the labor of 
felling the timber and clearing it away is over, 
the ground wants nothing more than scratching 
over with a light plough to be ready for sowing, 
and it brings forth crops unheard of! " 

*"' And how comes it," said the wife, " that 
America, seeing it is such a large place, and 
such a fine soil, has so much fewer people to live 
in it than England ? " 

" Because," said Hopkins, " it is so far away, 
that it was not found out or known that there was 
such a country in former times. The mate says, 
that in those days no ship ventured to sail out so 
far on an unknown sea : they were not so handy 
at their rigging as they are now ; nor the ships 
either so well built or so well managed ; and as 
for a steam-boat, why, they never so much as 
heard of such a thing, because they were not in- 
vented as yet." — " They must have been but 
dolts in those times," cried his wife. ^' And 
how came they to find out America, after all ? " 

" Why, once upon a time, a matter of three 
hundred years back, the mate says there was 
one Christopher Columbus, who was a fine, 



96 EMIGRATION ; OR, 

brave fellow, and had set his heart upon doing 
what no one had ever done before. So he got 
a ship and sailed on fearless in those unknown 
seas, till he reached land, and that land was 
America." 

" How pleased he must have been when he 
first saw it ! " cried dame Hopkins ; '' and well 
he deserved to be pleased, for being so bold ; 
for there is no saying what might have befallen 
him, or whether he would ever have found his 
way home, if he had not met with land." — 
" So the sailors thought," replied Hopkins ; 
" for they were all in such a taking, for fear they 
should sail on forever without coming to land, 
that at last they mutinied, and had well nigh 
thrown him overboard. Then he begged hard 
for three days more, and promised, that if at .the 
end of that time they should not see land, he 
would give all up, and sail homewards. Well, 
what should turn out, but on the third day, just 
as they were going about, the sailor at the top of 
the mast cried out, ' Land ! ' and sure enough it 
was land, for they sailed on a little longer, and 
then came to America. There is a whole book 
written about it, and it tells all that happened to 
them afterwards. They say it is as amusing a 
book as one could wish to read." — " Well," said 
the dame, " this same Christopher Columbus, 
with his hard name, was a fine daring fellow^, and 



* A NEW WORLD. 97 

Old England has reason to be proud of him." — 
" Why, good wife," returned John, hesitating 
whether to confess the mortifying truth or not. 
*' Christopher Columbus was not an Englishman, 
as you might have guessed by his name." — 
" Not an Englishman ! " exclaimed she, lifting up 
her hands in astonishment ; " who would ever have 
thought that a foreigner would dare to go where 
an English sailor had not ventured ? " — "I 
should not credit it," said Hopkins, '' if I had not 
heard it from the ship's mate at Liverpool, but 
I '11 warrant he is not mistaken, for he seems to 
know everything, especially about those parts. 
However, we must remember, wife, that we are 
all God's creatures ahke, English or foreigner, 
Protestant or Papist, Jew or Gentile ; as you 
may call to mind in the parable of the good Sa- 
maritan, which Patty read to us last Sunday ; he 
was but a foreigner to the Jews, and yet he was 
worth more than any of them." 

" And are there any other countries besides 
America, where poor folks can earn their bread 
easier then they can here ? " asked Dame Hop- 
kins. 

" Yes ; brother Bob tells me there are several, 
and one above all the rest which he sailed to in 
one of his voyages ; he declares it a very Para- 
dise for fine weather, beautiful prospects, and 
abundance of all things — fish, flesh, and fowl, 
7 



98 EMIGRATION ; OR, 

besides fruit and garden-stuff. But then there 's 
one thing that would never please you wife." 

''And why not, pray, if it's such a pleasant 
place ? " — " Why, because they send convicts 
there," replied her husband. " However, that 
don't so much matter, everything else being so 
agreeable. Indeed Bob says people are but too 
happy when they can hire some of the convicts 
to work for them, hands being so scarce." — 
" Mercy on me ! " exclaimed the wife, •' I should 
always be fancying they were going to murder 
me ! " — " Women will have foohsh fancies," 
replied he ; " but you would soon be used to 
them. Then there 's no danger ; for those that 
are unruly are made to work in chains, with an 
overseer to watch them. But many a poor lad 
has been transported, that poverty has brought to 
crime ; and when he has worked out his freedom, 
there 's no reason why he should not turn out as 
good as his betters who never were transported. 
Several have been known to thrive and prosper 
in that country, and bring up their children as 
Christians should do." 

" And pray, what is the name of that country ? " 
inquired the wife. 

" It is called Van Dieman's Land, after one 
Van Dieman who discovered it ; and it lies in 
the same part of the w^orld as Botany Bay." 

" Ay, one may guess that by the convicts 



A NEW WORLD. 99 

being sent there ; but that is * at the end of the 
world, PS one may say. Dick White once got a 
letter from his brother there, and he said it was 
well nigh a year coming." — " Yes, it 's a sad 
long way off," said Hopkins ; " and that makes 
it the more difficult to get there. All the world 
would be going to such a pretty place, if the 
expense of the long passage on board of ship was 
not so heavy." 

^' Well, for my part," returned his wife, " I 
don't like long voyages, because of the sea sick- 
ness ; and I don't like convicts, because of their 
wickedness : so if it were the very Paradise that 
Adam and Eve lived in, I would none on 't ; for 
I'm sure the Devil would be behind the bush, in 
the shape of a serpent, or a convict, or some such 
creature." 

This set her husband laughing. " So you 
are after cutting your jokes, are you ? " cried he. 
" Well, it is not much more that women know 
about such matters, and it 'smy belief that I have 
only just been losing my time, in telUng you all 
about it." So he took up his hat and walked 
off; while his wife, who liked to have the last 
word, called after him — "A Paradise full of 
convicts, forsooth ! Why, it 's more like a prison 
by half." 



THE POOR'S RATE; 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND 



" Good morrow to you, Dame Hopkins," said 
Farmer Stubbs, as he entered her cottage ; " how 
fares it with you and your family ? ' 

" Pretty well in health, thank you, sir," said 
she, wiping a chair with the corner of her apron 
for him to sit down ; " but, with such a family 
as ours, it 's a hard matter to make all ends 
meet ; and, indeed, we never could do it without 
the help of the parish. John is only just gone 
down to get the weekly allowance." 

" Indeed ! I thought Hopkins held himself 
above receiving relief from the parish." 

*' And so he did, till the children were well 
nigh starved. Ah, I shall never forget it. It 's 
just two years come Michaelmas, we had five 
of them ill of the measles at once ; and there 
were but four got through it," added she, a tear 
starting from her eye. — " And, as soon as the 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 101 

fever was off, though the poor things were so 
weak they could scarce crawl about, they had 
such craving appetites, and a morsel of food did 
them so much good, that when I had not enough 
to satisfy their hunger, I told John I could bear 
it no longer ; ' So bring down your proud spirit,' 
said I, ' and go and claim your dues. We have 
as much right to the parish money as others ; ay, 
and a better right than many of our neighbors, 
who make no scruple about it. It is better to 
come to the parish than to come to be beggars ; 
and I would rather ask alms than see my chil- 
dren starve.' Then John said, ' I had thought 
to have gone through the world without demean- 
ing myself by askmg aught of the parish ;' and I 
do think that a tear came into his eye ; but I did 
not dare notice it. So he took his hat and trudg- 
ed off with a heavy heart ; and, to this very day, 
he never goes with a light one ; but," added she, 
with a sign, "use blunts the edge of things we 
can't help." 

" True enough, you can't help it now," re- 
turned the farmer ; but, if your husband had 
been a prudent man, and had belonged to the 
benefit club, he might have got relief when his 
children were sick, without going to the par- 
ish." 

" Ay, but that weekly sixpence, to be paid 
down every Saturday, when, God knows, we 



102 THE POOR'S RATE: OR, 

have a sixpence too little when the day comes 
round, rather than one to spare for the club.* 
Sixpence seems a mighty small matter to you, 
Master Stubbs ; but, to come every week, it 's 
a heavy call upon a man with so large a family 
as ours. 

" He should not have had such a large 
family. Dame, if he could not provide for them 
in sickness and in health ; for he knows that 
sickness and trouble is the lot of man in this 
world." 

" We have good reason to know it," re- 
torted Dame Hopkins, who was nettled at the 
farmer's rebuke ; "for we have had our full 
share. And, as for the number of our children, 
we know pretty well, by experience, the hard- 
ships that brings on us, too : and has not John 
been breaking off the match between George and 
Betsy Bloomfield on purpose ?" 

'* A very prudent step," replied the cautious 
farmer ; " but here he comes. — Well, John, 
how much have you got from the overseers ?" 

" Not more than I had need of," answered 
John, sulkily, as if he thought that that was no 
business of Farmer Stubbs. — " Why, I want to 
know how much of it comes out of my pocket, 



* Many of the benefits of Friendly Societies may be 
insured at a smaller rate of payment than sixpence a 
week. 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 103 

" And if some of it does," retorted John, " I 
owe you no thanks ; for it is not I that take it 
from you, but the law of the land." 

" Ay, but if you, and such as you, did not 
come to want, the law of the land would not 
meddle with my money." 

" You are well to do in the world, and can af- 
ford to pay the poor's rate : and let me tell you, 
that if you have little pleasure in paying it, w^hy 
we have not much in receiving it. It is dealt 
out in such a niggardly grudging manner, and 
with such a surly tone, that one would think the 
overseers were giving you their own." 

" Why, for that matter, they pay pretty heav- 
ily towards it ; so they have some cause to be 
discontented." 

" Well, it is hard," said John, " to grudge us 
the only law that is made to favor the poor, 
when there are so many to favor the rich." 

'' Why, by your own account, John, it is not 
a good law ; for you allow that it is both paid 
and received with an ill-will." 

" Yes, but it gets us bread, which we can't do 
without, either with a good will or a bad one," 
said Dame Hopkins, " and I don't take it over 
kind of you. Master Stubbs, to be grumbling at 
my good man about the parish money, w^hen I 
have just been telling you how he hated to go 
for it." 



104 THE POOR'S RATE: OR, 

" Why, look ye, John," said the farmer ; " it 
is natural enough that I and the overseers, and 
the rest of us that pay the poor's rate, should 
grumble at it. You say I am well to do in the 
world ; and it is true I have a little property ; 
but I have a large family as well as you." 

'' Ay, but they hve in clover, " cried John. 

" Why, I wish to do the best I can by my 
children, as we all do, and to turn my means to 
the best account. Well, here are these twenty 
acres of common I have been turning up : I 
could have brought them to good account, if I 
could have bought as much manure and have 
paid as many hands as the land required to bring 
it into good order. But while I am reckoning 
up my means, and turning in my head how I can 
manage it, in comes the collector for the poor's 
rate, five shillings in the pound ! and when I 
complain, he tells me that, besides the large fami- 
lies, there are I don't know how many able-bodi- 
ed single men, who can get no work, and must 
be maintained by the parish. Then, indeed, I 
fell in a passion, and said, ' You are going to 
maintain them in idleness with the very money 
which I should have paid for their labor, if they 
had come to work for me.' — ' Oh, they will be 
ready enough to work for you.' — ' Well,' replied 
I, ' then leave me the money to pay for them ;' 
but he answered, ^ You know well enough that I 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 105 

must collect the rate that has been assessed : 



make what agreement you will afterwards.' — ' I 
can make none,' replied I ; ' when you take away 
my money, you take away my means. ' Now, 
if this happened to me only, you might say that 
I argued for my own interest ; but it happens to 
every one who pays the poor's rate through- 
out the kingdom ; and that not once and away, 
but every year, regularly, more or less." 

" Well, but you don't reckon fairly," said 
John, " if you say that the rate you pay is all 
sheer loss ; for, depend on it, if the overseers did 
not pay a part of the maintenance of children, 
farmers would be obliged to give higher wages, 
else the families would be starved to death ; and 
then I should be glad to know how you would 
get your work done ?" 

" I would willingly pay higher wages, and em- 
ploy more hands, too, could I once be rid of 
this poor's rate ; for then I should get the value 
of my money in labor ; while now I get nothing 
in return, and it goes to support a set of vaga- 
bonds who can't get work. And 1 will tell you 
why ; — because they won't seek it, and because 
their labor is not worth having : and so these la- 
zy fellows are employed idling their time away 
over some parish labor ; and taking away the 
money that would have employed an honest 
hard-working man, and have enabled him to 



106 THE POOR'S RATE: OR, 

have maintained his family without going upon 
the parish." 

" Get me paid wages enough to maintain my 
family, and I promise you the overseers shall 
not see my face again." 

"But you have such a swarm of children, 
John ; now I pay a man the value of the work 
he does for me, without minding the number 
of his children : for that is his business, not . 
mine." 

" Then the poor's rate must make up what 's 
wanting," cried Dame Hopkins ; "for mothers 
won't let their own flesh and blood starve : and, 
if they can't maintain them by their labor, why 
they would beg, borrow, or steal, sooner than 
come to that. And as for the poor's rate. Mas- 
ter Stubbs, there can be no harm in taking what 
the law gives you." 

" I tell you it is a bad law : bad for the rich, 
because it hinders them from employing the 
poor, (at least so far as the rate goes ;) bad for 
the poor, because it encourages them to increase 
and multiply, till they come to rags and star- 
vation. Let me ask you, Hopkins, — when 
you married, had not you an eye to the par- 
ish relief, in case you should come to dis- 
tress ? " 

" Mayhap I might : and sure, a prudent man 
ought to look forward to the changes and chan- 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 107 

ces that may happen in hfe ; for then he is 
the better able to provide for them when they do 
come." 

" Better provide against their coming at all," 
replied Stubbs ; " but you counted not on your 
own efforts, but on the parish for helping you in 
distress." 

" And could I do better, when the law makes 
such a provision for those that come to poverty, 
and can't help themselves out of it ?" 

" They would not have got into it if the law 
did not make such a provision for them. You 
yourself own you would not have married so ear- 
ly, had you not reckoned on the parish. Others 
would not either: families would have been 
smaller ; laborers would have been fewer ; they 
would more easily have got employment ; ay, 
and have been better paid, too." 

" Why, that is just all I have been telling my 
wife ; but I never thought the poor's rate had any 
thing to do with it. I am sure our distress all 
comes from having too many children ; not 
from the poor's rate, which helps to maintain 
them." 

" But what is it encourages large families ?" 
cried Stubbs : " why the poor's rate." — " What 
is it lowers wages ?" retorted John : " why, the 
poor's rate ; you can't deny that." 

" No, I don't ; bijt I tell you again it 's the 



108 THE POOR'S RATE: OR, 

poor's rate that brings them to the brink of star- 
vation ; for, is it not large families, low wages, 
and want of work, that does it? Ay, and it 
is not receiving it only that does the damage ; 
for, paying it, many a time, brings those to pov- 
erty who would else have been able to keep 
their heads above water." 

" That's true enough of one I saw this morn- 
ing at the vestry," said John ; and a hard matter 
I had to see her ; for she wrapped herself up in 
her cloak, and pulled her bonnet over her face : 
but my heart misgave me, — • it was the widow 
Dixon ; and so I turned short upon her ; and, 
when she saw me right before her, the blood 
came up into her face, which is, you know, as 
white as a sheet, and has been so ever since she 
lost poor Dixon, except round her eyes. And 
when I asked her how she came to be so re- 
duced (thinking her husband had left her pretty 
well off), she said, ' No, Master Hopkins ; he 
did all he could not to bring me down to a lower 
station while he lived ; but his means were but 
small, and the profits of our little shop did but 
just serve to maintain us. We should have laid 
by a trifle every year, if it had not been for the 
poor's rate ; but that eat up all our savings. 
However, I ought not to complain of it now, since 
it brings me rehef ; but it is hard to have shame 
and sorrow come upon me at once :' and the 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 109 

tears ran down her cheeks. I told her there 
was no shame in taking her own again. She, 
who had paid it so long, had more right to it 
than any of us. She said, * God's will be done !' 
but she looked as though sorrow and shame would 
break her heart. It was sad to see her." 

" And why should you needs be thursting 
yourself upon her," cried his wife, " when you 
saw she had no mind to be noticed ? You should 
just have let her have her way, poor woman, since 
you could not give her any help." 

" Ay, but it lightens the load upon the heart 
when any one gives you a good word and a kind 
look, as much as to say, ' You should not have 
come to this pass if I could have helped you ; ' 
for the widow Dixon thinks more of the disgrace 
than of the want of bread, or she would not 
have been so shamefaced." 

" Well, if the poor's rate goes on increasing 
and increasing, as it has done of late years, it is 
what we shall all come to at last," said the farm- 
er ; " and then who is to pay it ? " 

*' Nay, it will never come to that pass. Master 
Stubbs." 

" Mayhap not ; but the time may come when 
the collector will not be able to raise the rate 
that is assessed : and that time is well nigh come 
in some parts of the country, as I can tell you, 
John, of my own knowledge ; for, bad as the 



110 THE POOR'S RATE; OR 

poor's rate is here, there are some places in which 
it is still worse ; that is some comfort." 

" Much good may it do you, Farmer Stubbs; 
but, to my mind, it is a poor comfort that comes 
from the distress of one's neighbor." 

" As for that," returned Stubbs, " there is not 
much neighborhood in the matter ; for I am talk- 
ing of the counties in the south of England, and 
that is some hundred miles off." 

" Ay," but what does the Scripture teach us. 
Master Stubbs ? " said Dame Hopkins • ''to love 
our neighbor as ourselves ; and that neighbor, the 
parson tells us, does not mean the next door 
neighbor only, no, nor the next market town, 
but every body and every where. So we ought 
not to get comfort from our neighbor's trouble 
any more than from our own." 

" Well, but how is the poor's rate managed 
in the south ? " said John. 

" Why, I will tell you," replied Stubbs, " if 
your dame has ended her sermon. The men 
are paid according to the number of their chil- 
dren, not according to the value of their work." 
" Well, but, asking your pardon. Master 
Stubbs, you said a bit ago, that farmers care 
much more for the goodness of the workman 
than for the number of his children ; and that 
they will employ an able-bodied, hard-working 
man, without asking whether he be married or 
single." 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. Ill 

" To be sure they will ; but let me go on with 
my story. Well, as I was saying, this regulation 
began in Berkshire. The magistrates declared 
that it was very unfair that the single and the 
married should get the same wages ; and as they 
could not oblige the farmers to give the one more 
than the other, they agreed to make up the dif- 
ference from the poor's rate. So they made a 
table of the rate of wages ; saying so much would 
maintain a single man, and then they doubled it 
for a married man with one or two children ; 
then it went on so much more for five, and so 
much for seven children. Then, again, the 
wages were to depend on the price of bread 
also." 

" Well, one must say that was very thoughtful 
of the magistrates," exclaimed the good wife, 
" and very humane too ; I did not think they cared 
so much about the poor as to portion out his lot 
to each so fairly and honestly." 

" Stop a bit, till you have heard the end of it. 
Dame ; and tlien, if you give them credit for 
good will, you won't for clear-sightedness. I 
heard all about it from an uncle of mine, who 
is a landholder in those parts, and he says the 
poor's rate is intolerable to those that have to 
pay it ; and as to those it maintains, they are 
worse off there than in any other part of the 
country." 



112 THE POOR'S RATE; OR 

" But bow is that, when ther« is such a pro- 
vision for them ? " 

" Why, when the regulation was first made, 
it did well enough, for a while. But no sooner 
did the young lads find that a married man got 
double wages, and more, too, if he had several 
children, than their heads were all agog after 
getting wives ; for you know it is natural enough 
they should fancy the girls, when they get the 
money to boot. My uncle says, that he remem- 
bers the time when a decent young man never 
thought of a wife till he had put by forty or fifty 
pounds ; and some, much more : but now, in- 
stead of working hard to save up the money, and 
so getting habits of industry before they marry, 
they take a wife in order to get the money with- 
out working for it, and so begin life with habits of 
indolence. Why, the magistrates might just as 
well have gone about driving the young couples 
into church, as you would sheep into a fold. 
Well, the next year the children swarm, increas- 
ed rates must be raised ; and so it goes on year 
after year, till the young ones grow up fit for 
work. But there is no work for such numbers ; 
and they come more and more upon the parish, 
till at last the parish is forced to give in, and can't 
keep to its agreement, for no rate will satisfy 
so many mouths. So then the youngsters fall 
to grumbling, and after that to poaching and pil- 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 113 

fering ; for when a man cannot get a livelihood 
honestly by his labor, he is little like to resist a 
temptation that falls in his way to get it other- 
wise, especially when he has been bred up to in- 
dolence : then come prisons, and trials, and trans- 
portations, and sometimes the gallows : and 
though it is no more than their deserts, they 
won't put up with it ; and so, at last they come 
to rioting, and sending threatening letters, and 
burning of farms, and all that sort of thing, as you 
know they did last autumn." 

" God forgive them, poor souls ! " ejaculated 
the good wife, " seeing it is no fault of theirs, but 
of their parents, who brought them in1;o the world 
before there was room for them." 

" Yes, but they should know how to behave 
themselves when they are in it," rephed Stubbs. 

" Where is the use of being industrious and 
hard-working," cried John, " when you get noth- 
ing by it? We don't work for the pleasure of the 
thing. Master Stubbs, as you well know, but for 
the gain it brings us ; and if the parish will main- 
tain them without it, they won't wear themselves 
out for nothing. And then as for laying by forty 
or fifty pounds, as you said they did formerly, 
why, it would be impossible with these regula- 
tions, even if they had no mind to marry ; for, 
while wages are so low to a single man, he can 
make no savings." 
8 



114 THE POOR'S RATE; OR, 

" When wages were alike to all," said Stubbs, 
" the single man had to spare, and could lay by, 
though the married one was straitened." 

" And do you call that fair and honest," said 
the dame, " to straiten the man with a family, in 
order to give the single man more than he can 
spend ? " 

" I believe it is wise and prudent, wife," said 
Hopkins : " for, instead of driving the lads into 
wedlock, it,w"ould make them keep out of it; at 
least, till they had got somewhat to maintain a 
wife and family." 

" True enough," said Stubbs ; " so you see 
that this humane regulation of the magistrates 
encourages idleness just as much as it encour- 
ages early marriages, and a superabundance of 
children." 

"But the worst of all," said the wife, " is, that 
it teaches them to be idle, discontented, and riot- 
ous, and madly to burn the very ricks of corn that 
misht have made them bread." 

" Yes, my uncle said, that the laborers now- 
a-days were quite different from what they used 
to be. Their characters quite changed within 
his memory; not but there may be some among 
them right-minded still, but, take the general run, 
they are a bad set. There was one of them so 
impudent as to say to his employer, — ' If you 
don't give me better wages, I will marry to-mor- 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 115 

row, and then you must maintain me at double 
cost.' For the fellow was sharp enough to know, 
that, though the magistrates paid the difference, 
it came out of the farmer's pocket in the shape of 
poor's rate." 

" But when the parish maintains them, the 
parish ought to make them work," said John. 

'' So they do, as far as they can : they send 
them round to the farmers in gangs, and when the 
farmer can find them work, they pay the wages 
to the parish, who let them come off cheap, as 
they help to maintain these paupers." 

" The more fools they ! " cried John ; " for 
the farmer will turn off his laborers at regular 
wages to employ these cheaper hands, and 
then these others will come upon the parish too." 

" And cruel it is," said the wife, " upon those 
that are turned out of their natural work by these 
gangs, and so forced to go upon the parish them- 
selves." 

" However," continued Stubbs, " the farmers 
find they make no great savings by employing 
these gangs of roundsmen, as they call them, for 
they don't do half the work of a common day 
laborer." 

" Why should they ? " cried John — " do little, 
do much, they get no reward but their mainte- 
nance ; just like an ox, or a horse, that won't 
work without the whip." 



116 THE POOR'S RATE; OR, 

" Or like the negro slaves in the West Indies," 
said Stubbs, " who want the whip, too, to stir 
their indolence." 

" What a sin and a shame," cried the dame, 
" to use men like negro slaves and brute 
beasts ! " 

" Why, it all comes of your fair, honest, and 
humane regulations made by the magistrates," 
cried the farmer, laughing at her. 

" It is no laughing matter, methinks, Master 
Stubbs : you may be in the right, and I in the 
wrong ; and if I am, why I am free to confess it. 
But I can't but think that, in all this talk, you 
have had more an eye to your own interest, than 
to the good of others." 

" And if my interest, and the good of others, 
go along together cheek by jowl, where is the 
harm of thinking of one's own interest ? Let us 
each take care of number one, say I." 

" No objections to that." said the dame, " if 
you don't forget number two when your interests 
don't jog on together." 

" Well, T maintain that it would be for the 
good of one and all to put down these poor's 
rates. Did you ever hear what a sum they 
amount to? — Why, above six millions." 

'' Gracious me !" cried the wife, " what a pow- 
er of money that must be !" 

" Well, and all this to be employed in doing 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 117 

more harm than good, — for I don't pretend to 
say that it does no good. No ; when the large 
famUies are there, and distress and poverty keep 
close at their heels, then the poor's rate lends a 
helping hand, it is true. But it is a treacherous 
friend, that pretends to do a mighty deal of good 
by giving you a mouthful, after it has taken away 
a whole meal. You don't think of the lost meal, 
because you never saw it, and don't understand 
it. But just think a bit : if this enormous sum of 
money, instead of being paid in poor's rate, was 
employed in setting people to work ; why, the 
poor would earn the same money by labor that 
they get now as paupers, and the hard-working 
and industrious would come in for the best share, 
which now falls to the lot of idle vagabonds." 

" There is some sense in all that, no doubt," 
said John ; " but still, though we should get the 
money another way, there would not be enough 
for all, any more than there is now." 

" I don't know that," replied Farmer Stubbs., 
" for the poor's rate is the root of the evil ; and 
if you cut down the tree, root and branch, there 
is no saying how much good may come of it. 
Poor folks would not marry so early in life, and 
have such swarms of children ; in the course of 
time laborers would become scarce, and they 
would get higher wages ; and so,, after a while, 
all would be set to righ;ts," 



118 THE POOR'S RATE; OR, 

" If there never had been any poor's rate, 
perhaps it would have been better; but now 
that we have the large families, and the low 
wages, and the want of work, we can't do with- 
out it." 

" The more is the harm of having brought the 
poor to such a condition," said Stubbs ; but it 
might be done by degrees." 

" I don't see how, except by starving half our 
children ; and I shan't agree to that, I promise 
you." 

" Mercy on me ! " interposed the wife, raising 
up her hands, how can you talk after that man- 
ner, husband ? And how can you put such 
thoughts into his head. Master Stubbs ?" 

" No, no, I am not so hard-hearted as that 
comes to," said Stubbs : " but suppose a law was 
made that no child born after three or four years 
from this time should be entitled to parish relief, 
why, that would give time for people to think of 
the consequences ; large families would thus be 
discouraged ; and when those who receive relief 
from the parish died off in the course of nature, 
why, the poor's rate would die of a natural death 
too ; for if there was none to want it, it would 
not be raised ; so the landholders would get their 
own again, the laborers higher wages and plenty 
of work, and the world would jog on merrily." 

" Ay, but do what you will. Master Stubbs, 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 119 

a poor man is always falling in with bad luck : 
first there is sickness ; then there are acci- 
dents." 

" Here and there a case," said Stubbs ; " but 
that is not an every-day evil : besides, when a 
man gets good wages, he may put aside a penny 
against the unlucky day, and lock it up safe in 
the club-box, that he may not be tempted in a 
merry freak to spend it at the alehouse ; or, what 
is better still, he may put it in the savings' bank, 
where it is safe and sure, and gives you interest 
into the bargain. Besides, you know, John, that 
in case of accident there is no want of hospitals, 
where there are as skilful doctors , and as handy 
nurses, as the rich have themselves. And then 
the great folks are, many of them, very good to 
the poor in case of need, and would do still more 
for them when they knew they had not the 
parish to go to for help." 

" Well, it is a hard matter to understand the 
right and the wrong of these things," said John ; 
'' and if we did not feel them any more than we 
can understand them, why, I should not trouble 
my head about them. But a hungry stomach is 
apt to make one discontented, and turn it in one's 
mind how things might be changed for the bet- 
ter. They are bad enough now, God knows ! so 
I am one that would not object to make trial of 
some change, if it were done fairly and softly." 



120 THE POOR'S RATE ; OR, 

" Well, I hope we shall live to see it," said 
the farmer, taking up his hat ; " and so a good 
day to you, John ; and to you, too, dame, if you 
bear me no ill will." 

Dame Hopkins contented herself with drop- 
ping him a slight curtsy as he went out ; and no 
sooner was he gone, than she exclaimed, " Have 
a care, John, how you lend an ear to that man, 
though he is one of your betters ; for it is as 
clear as broad day that he thinks of nothing but 
his own good." 

"Ay, one may see that with half an eye," said 
John : '' but for all that, he has his wits about 
him, and knows more than I do of these matters ; 
and 1 can't but think that what he said was very 
near the truth." 

" True or false," cried the dame, " I can't 
abide to hear him talk in so hard-hearted a man- 
ner." 

" Ay, but the matter is much more to the 
point than the manner ; and I do agree with him, 
that, if we understood it righly, the interest of the 
rich and poor might go hand in hand, like a lov- 
ing man and wife, who, though they may fall out 
now and then, jog on together till death parts 
them." 

" Ah, John ! if the husband were rich, and 
the wife poor, they would not long go on loving- 
ly together." 



THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND. 121 

" Well, you won't believe me, because you 
don't understand it ; but come, now, Tom shall 
read you a fable, and an apt one it is, — it shows 
how the rich stand in need of the poor, as much 
as the poor in need of the rich ; and if so, their 
interests must lie the same way." 

Then he called Tom to bring his book, and 
bade him read the Fable of the Belly and the 
Members. 

Tom, who had been some time monitor at the 
Village School, began in an audible voice, and 
we shall leave them to their lecture. 



MACHINERY; 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS 



Jackson, a poor weaver, had all his life sup- 
ported himselfby working at the hand-loom. At 
length, finding that he could no longer gain a 
livelihood in this manner, he made up his mind 
to go to America. Before setting off, however, 
he went round the village to take leave of his 
friends ; and when he came to the cottage of 
Hopkins, who was standing at his door, he was 
thus accosted by him : — 

" So then, neighbor Jackson, you are off for 
America, are you ? Well, good luck go with 
you ! I have heard it 's a rare place for wa- 
ges ; but it 's a strange land, and there 's no tell- 
ing the changes and chances that may happen 
before you get well settled there." 

" Happen what may," replied Jackson, " I 



MACHINERY, ETC. 123 

have no choice but to go there or to the parish ; 
and it shall not be said of me that, able to work, 
and without encumbrances, I became a burden 
to my country. I Ve staid here year after year, 
struggling and striving to get a livelihood in my 
old calling, but all to no purpose : since the in- 
vention of the power-loom, it 's all over with us 
at the hand-loom. We work both harder and 
later to endeavor to make all ends meet, but 
there 's no standing against these new machines ; 
they do the work of a dozen of us. Ay," con- 
tinued he, with a sigh, " machinery will be the 
ruin of us all one day or other. They are for- 
ever finding out something that will do the work 
cheaper than we can ; and unless we could work 
without wages, like their machines, that have 
neither hungry stomachs to feed nor helpless 
children to rear, we have no chance for it. Why, 
I remember the time when I made no less than 
twenty shillings a week by my hand-loom ; but 
now, that the power-loom does as much work 
for the value of three or four shillings, they will 
give me no more, without considering how much 
more labor it costs me." 

" It 's natural enough," replied Hopkins, " that 
the masters will get their work done at the cheap- 
est rate ; in the way of business, men look to 
their interest, and nothing else." 

This was poor consolation to Jackson ; and it 



124 MACHINERY; OR, 

pleased him little better when Hopkins advised 
him to turn his hand to some other work : for he 
had stuck so closely to the hand-loom all his life, 
that he thought there was no other possible 
means of gaining his livelihood. — "Well, per- 
haps," said Hopkins, '^ you had rather try your 
luck in another country ; and having neither wife 
nor children, you may be right to risk the ven- 
ture." 

" Though I have neither wife nor child," re- 
plied Jackson, '^ I have no wish to leave my own 
country and my kinsfolk ; but when you have 
been used to one sort of work all the days of 
your hfe, it 's no such easy matter to turn your 
hand to another. And, besides, if you did so," 
added he, " no sooner is a man again settled in 
an honest way of earning his bread, and there is 
some other new machine or invention that does 
the work cheaper, and so he is again turned 
adrift. It 's my turn now, neighbor Hopkins, 
but it w^ill be yours by and by ; for, it 's my 
belief, they will never stop finding out new 
helps till they come to tilling the ground 
with machines, as well as using them in fac- 
tories." 

" Why, for that matter," cried Hopkins, 
"they do so already, sure enough; for the 
plough is a machine., to all intents and purpo- 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS: 125 

" Ay,'' retorted Jackson, " they say that once 
upon a time it was all spade husbandry. What 
numbers of men must have been employed in 
digging the cornfields ! There could have been 
no lack of work then." — ''No, but a sad lack 
of corn," replied Hopkins ; "work as hard as 
they would, they could never produce half so 
much as the plough. Now, the people can get 
no more corn than there is to be had ; you will 
grant me that ? " 

There 's no denying it ; for it 's as clear as 
two and two make four." 

" Ay, and what 's more," continued Hopkins, 
'' the poor won't get all there is to be had ; for 
the rich will have the largest share ; which is 
natural enough, they having the most money to 
pay for what they want. Now, corn raised by 
the spade would be very scarce ; and what is 
very scarce is very dear, as we all know : so we 
poor folk should scarcely get bread enough to 
keep hfe and soul together. Besides," added 
Hopkins (when he found that Jackson had not 
a word to answer,) " if you are so averse to ma- 
chines, a spade is a machine as well as a plough ; 
so, if you are for doing away with machines, one 
and all, you must destroy the spade as well as 
the plough, and fall to scratching up the ground 
with your hands, like very savages. A famous 
improvement that would be, indeed I and I should 



1«J6 MACHINERY i OR, 

like to know how much corn we should raise 
after that fashion ? " 

" Nay," replied Jackson, '^ now you are run- 
ning into extremes ^ there 's a wide difference 
between scratching up the earth with hands, and 
doing nothing at all with them. I don't say that 
all machines that help us on with our work are 
bad. A hand-loom is good enough, it has gain- 
ed me a livelihood many a year ; but the power- 
loom is the very devil." 

*' Suppose that, in after-times," said Hopkins, 
" a machine should be invented that would cut 
out the power-loom, just as the power-loom has 
cut out the hand-loom ; would not the weavers at 
the power-loom call their own a good machine, 
and the new invention the very devil ? " 

Jackson could make no reply : but he knew 
that the argument afforded him no relief, so he re- 
turned to the old point, and said, — " But I don't 
allow that the spade is a machine ; it is but a sim- 
ple tool at best." — " Well," replied Hopkins, 
" in my mind a machine, a tool, an implement, or 
an instrument, is all one. Besides, what matters 
the name ? I call machinery, whatever helps us 
to make things easier or better than we could do 
with our naked hands ; whether it be a spade or 
a pickaxe, a hammer or a chisel, or the great 
steam engine that sets all the cotton-winders' ma- 
chines a-going." 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 127 

" Well, but granting the spade to be a ma- 
chine," rephed Jackson, " it 's one that does us 
no harm. It can't turn us out of work, for there 
must be a man to every spade ; just as there is 
a man to every hand-loom. And those are the 
only right sort of machines, I maintain," said he 
raising his voice, and laying a stronger emphasis 
on his words as he felt himself stronger in his 
argument : " they help you on, and never turn 
you off. While the machines that do the work 
of twenty men, and require only one to manage 
it, throw nineteen out of work ; that 's clear. 
No, a spade and a hand-loom for my money ; 
with a man tacked to each of them." Having 
finished his phrase, he stood looking with an air 
of triumph at Hopkins, whom he thought he had 
now fairly mastered. 

" Why," said Hopkins, casting a look at him 
somewhat between a smile and a sneer, ^' that 's 
just the reason they are not used. For, look ye, 
if every spade must have his man, every man must 
have his wages : so that it would cost the farm- 
er a mint of money to raise corn by the spade." 

" What care I for the farmer ? " cried Jack- 
son, vexed to be again crossed, when he thought 
he had made out his point. " It is better to 
care for the poor who eat the bread, than for the 
rich who grow it." 

"Ay, but what costs dear to grow, cannot be 



128 MACHINERY; OR, 

sold cheap, and that 's what the poor look to. 
Unless, indeed," continued Hopkins, laughing, 
" men can gain a livelihood by driving a losing 
trade." 

" I 'm no such fool as to think that a farmer 
will sell his corn for less than it cost him to 
raise," said Jackson ; " he ought to get a fair and 
reasonable profit too." 

" Well, then," said Hopkins, " a plough with 
a team of oxen, or of horses, and a couple of 
men, will do the work of fifty spades ; and the 
corn, being raised so much the cheaper, will be 
sold the cheaper. The poor will be able to pay 
the price of it, and will be better supphed with it." 

" Yet it is well known," said Jackson, " that 
the spade breaks up the ground better than the 
plough ; else, why is it used in gardens ? " 

" I don't deny that the spade is the best in- 
strument of the two," replied Hopkins ; " but 
for all that it would not raise so much corn as 
the plough; because farmers could not afford 
to employ spades enough, and the poor could not 
afford to pay the price of corn raised by spade 
husbandry. Take my word for it, that it is be- 
cause the plough digs up our fields, the drill sows 
our corn, the threshing machine beats it, and the 
wind or water-mill grinds it ; that bread does not 
cost one half of what it would, were these cheap 
means of producing and preparing it unknown. 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 129 

And should more new contrivances be made to 
till the land easier, and make bread cheaper, 
why, so much the better, say I." 

Jackson, finding that he was not a match for 
Hopkins, had no other resource than to stick ob- 
stinately to his old argument, " that if all w^ork 
was done by machines, those who had no means 
of living but by their labor must starve." 

" We are apt to say," replied Hopkins, " that 
we live by our labor; but that 's only a way of 
speaking ; for labor would rather be the death of 
us than make us live, if it was not for the wages 
it brought us." 

" Well, methinks it is you, Hopkins, who are 
speaking after an odd fashion ; we are none of us 
such fools as not to know that labor, on the long 
run, wears us out, and that when we say we 
live by our labor, we mean by the wages we earn 
by it. Nay, indeed, if you are so particular, we 
do not live by wages either, for we can neither 
eat nor drink, nor wear the wages we get. They 
are of no use to us till we spend them ; so that 
we live on what our wages will buy." — " Ay, 
you are in the right road now," cried Hopkins. 
"And the cheaper things are the more we can 
buy with our wages ; eh, Jackson ? " 

" Sure enough," returned the latter. 

" Well, then," continued Hopkins, " which is 
the way to have things cheap and plenty ? Is it 
9 



130 MACHINERY; OR, 

by making them by the hands of man, or with 
such helps as mills and steam engines, which re- 
ceive no wages, but are set a going by a pufF of 
wind or a bubble of steam, or a stream of cold 
water, good creatures, that do the work of 
hundreds of men, and all free cost ; and yet, 
instead of being thankful, you fall abusing them." 

Jackson, who had felt his losses too bitterly to 
be easily satisfied, replied — " I grant you they 
work cheaper, and mayhap better than we do ; 
but I say it again, what 's that to us who are turn- 
ed adrift by them ? If we have no work we have 
no wages, and then we have no means of getting 
at the goods, be they cheap or dear." 

" There 's no factory that can go alone," re- 
plied Hopkins : " there are always men and 
women, ay, and children too, wanted to manage 
the machinery. — Now, answer me this one 
question. Do you think that as machines im- 
prove, and new ones are invented, there are more 
or fewer people employed in factories than be- 
fore ?" — " Fewer, no doubt," said Jackson, " by 
just the number thrown out of work by the new, 
or improved machinery." 

" So it is, if you look no further than your 
nose," answered Hopkins. ^' You never think of 
the increase of work at the factories in conse- 
quence of the new machinery ; and of the num- 
ber of people in the end employed in them. I 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 131 

have heard old Master Spires, who has had no 
less than fifty years' experience in the manufac- 
turing line say, that when first spinning-mills were 
set up, numbers of hand spinners could no longer 
get their bread, the mills doing the work so much 
cheaper than the spinning-wheel. So there was 
great alarm among the people, and rioting to 
such a pitch, that several of the mills were de- 
stroyed ; but at last the mills were built up 
again, and the rioters put down." — " Ay," in- 
terrupted Jackson, that 's the way of the world, 
the rich are the strongest and always gain their 
point in the end." 

" Well, but let us see what that end is," cried 
Hopkins. " Old Spires told me, that no more 
than ten years after the setting up of the spinning 
mills, the trade increased so much, in conse- 
quence of the goods being cheaper, that the num- 
ber of people employed^ both as spinners or 
weavers, was no less than forty times as many 
as when the spinning was done by hand. So, 
you see, that if the folks were thrown out of 
work one while, they had ample amends after- 
wards." 

'' Ay, but they might have been all starved 
before the ten years were out." 

'' Why, look ye, Jackson ; the mills did not 
employ forty times as many all on a sudden, as 
it were, at the end of ten years. No, it increas- 



132 MACHINERY ; OR, 

ed by degrees. When the mills were first set up 
they began on a small scale. Let us say, that 
they turned half of the hand spinners out of 
work. At the end of a twelvemonth the trade, 
perhaps, had increased so much, that all those 
who had forsaken their wheels might find work 
at the mills, if they chose it. The next year 
the mills would perhaps employ double the 
number, and so go on regularly increasing, till at 
the end often years they set to work forty times 
as many as gained their livelihood by spinning 
before the mills were set up. 

" Master Spires told me another story, about 
an old crone, who was somewhat of your way of 
thinking, Jackson. — 'She was sitting at her 
wheel,' said he, ' in the chimney-corner, and 
grumbling at me who was concerned in the fac- 
tory, because she could not get half so much 
by her spinning, as she did formerly. Just then 
the bell at the mills rung, and the people were 
let out from work. Soon after, in came two 
men, three women, and four or five children, who 
were all grand-children, or great-grand-children 
of the old woman. — "And what do these get 
by their work ?" said Spires ; " twenty times as 
much as you ever made by your wheel, I '11 
warrant ?" But she would not listen to reason, 
and fell abusing the factory, insisting that the old 
times were the best. I asked her how much she 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 133 

gave for a cotton gown in those good old times.' 
" Why I never had one to my back," rephed 
she. " Cotton gowns were only made for our 
betters in those days ; for they cost a power of 
money far beyond our reach." — " Well," said 
Spires; " look at your grand-children, the lads 
have cotton shirts, and the lasses neat cotton 
gowns ; and I '11 be bound to say, they do not 
cost them more than five shillings each ; while I 
know that in the days of your youth they cost a 
guinea, or more. And why are they so much 
cheaper now ? Because the cotton is spun and 
woven at the factory." — " Umph ! " cried she, 
drawing herself up ; " they might have worn 
stuff gowns, as their betters did before them." — 
" Ay, but," said one of the lads, " we could not 
wear stuff shirts, gran-dam. — " And as for stuff 
gowns," said a smart-looking girl, turning up her 
nose with a look of contempt ; " they are not 
half so nice and so clean as cotton ones, for sum- 
mer at least." — " Besides," said Spires, " stuffs 
are made in a factory as well as cottons." The 
old woman still stood out for the good old times, 
so Spires thought he would take her upon anoth- 
er tack, and asked her what she paid for stock- 
ings in the days of her youth ? " Nothing at 
all," answered she ; for I was fain to go bare- 
footed : stockings were too dear, and we never 
found the want of them." — " Then, why not 



134 MACH[NERY; OR, 

do without them now, and spend the money in 
something you do want ? But, methinks, you 
would be loth to part with that pair of worsted 
stockings that keeps your feet so warm and com- 
fortable ; and your grand-children w^ould not be 
willing to part with theirs either, for the comfort 
or the look of it." — " There's no need we 
should," cried the old crone ; " they are cheap 
enough now for us to afford to wear them." — 
" And why ?" replied Spires ; '' because they were 
woven in a loom, and made with half the labor 
that was bestowed on them, when they were 
knitted." — " Lookye, goody, added he ; " not 
only is this large family of yours supplied with 
food and clothing by machinery, but some of 
them may owe their very lives to it ; for they 
might have died from want, had there been no 
factory here." — '' For thai matter,'' cried the 
dame ; '^ it pleased the Lord to take more 
than half my children ; for I had twelve born 
alive, and I reared only four." — " That was 
in the good old times," said Spires, smiling 
archly. " But tell me, have you lost half your 
grand-children ?" — " No," rephed she ; " their 
mothers had better luck. I have had sixteen 
grand-children born, and only six died." — "No 
luck in the case," replied Spires ; '' only the 
children were better provided for, and it is the 
will of God, that children should die, when their 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 135 

parents either do not or cannot provide for them. 
So, it 's my belief, that these likely lads and bux- 
om lasses not only owe their cotton shirts and 
gowns to the factory, but one half of them their 
lives to it also." ' — "And he was right, continued 
Hopkins ; there 's no reckoning up the good that 
comes of machinery one way or other. We man- 
ufacture goods not only for ourselves, but for al- 
most every other country, as I 've heard say, 
and why ? Because we can make goods cheap- 
er, and all on account of the superiority of our 
machinery. 1 tell you there 's no country has 
so many factories as old England ; and there 's 
none employ so many hands. How, then, can 
machinery prevent labor ? on the contrary, it in- 
creases it, and affords a maintenance to thou- 
sands." Hopkins now stopped, fairly out of 
breath, and left time for Jackson to observe, that 
other countries had factories as well as England. 
'' They have," replied Hopkins; " they are al- 
ways after copying our machinery ; but John 
Bull is a shrewd fellow, and contrives to keep 
a-head of them all. He has a quick insight and 
a ready hand, and is forever inventing something 
new to improve his machinery, and get the work 
done better or cheaper than his neighbors, so as 
to be able to undersell them." . 

Jackson could answer nothing but a repetition 
of his old complaint ; he declared, that the new 



136 MACHINERY ; OR, 

inventions made the fortunes of the master man- 
ufacturers, but starved the laborers. 

The patience of Hopkins was well nigh ex- 
hausted, at having this argument again brought 
forward, when he thought he had completely 
refuted it ; but he was so desirous to bring round 
Jackson to his way of thinking, that he determin- 
ed to make another trial. — " Yours is a hard 
case, Jackson, I allow," said he ; '' and it is that 
v/hich blinds you to the truth ; but there cannot 
be many cases like yours ; else, how could the 
country become more and more populous every 
year ? and that no one can deny. Why, if ma- 
chinery drove people away to foreign lands, or 
starved them at home, there would be a decrease 
instead of an increase of people, would there 
not ? " 

" As for that matter," replied Jackson, " the 
population depends on the numbers that are 
born ; and I think, for my part, that the poorer 
folks are, the m.ore children they have." 

'' Remember what Master Spires said to the 
old crone, Jackson ; though many be born, few 
can be reared, unless there be food for the stom- 
ach, and clothes to the back. So, if there are 
more children reared now than there were for- 
merly, you must admit that their parents are bet- 
ter off. Now, it is not so much because more 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 137 

are bom, but because fewer die, that the country 
increases in population. 

"Fewer die!" repeated Jackson, laughing; 
" why, you know as well as I, that they are all 
sure to die one day or other." 

''Ay! but it makes a rare difference, whether 
that day comes soon or late, eh, Jackson ? I 
tell you, people's lives last out longer than they 
used to do years ago. More children grow up 
to man's estate — grown-up men are more 
healthy, and the old have fewer infirmities, and 
are not so soon cut off. Fifty years back, one 
man in forty died every year ; now only one in 
fifty-eight dies ; that makes eighteen years dif- 
ference ; and you and I shall not be sorry to 
have a fair chance of living eighteen years long- 
er than our forefathers ? Nay, if you go back to 
the good old times, some hundred years ago, 
there were two died then for one that dies now. 
And why ? Because we are better fed, better 
clothed, better nursed when young, and better 
doctored when sick. Now, all this bettering 
comes from things being made cheaper, and sold 
cheaper through the help of machines ; so, in- 
stead of grumbling at them, you should thank 
God for having given men the power of invent- 
ing contrivances to shorten and cheapen labor ; 
and the sense to find out, that wind, and water, 
and steam will work without tiring, both by night 



138 MACHINERY; OR, 

and by day , and, what 's more, without pay." 
" Ay, I wish you had heard the story an old 
pedlar told us one day ; he said, that wind, and 
water, and steam worked like giants, and without 
requiring either food or clothing, or lodging, or 
wages." 

" And for what purpose ? " interrupted Jack- 
son, who was only waiting for an opportunity to 
thrust in his old argument, " just to turn us poor 
folk out of work !" — " No such thing ! " retort- 
ed Hopkins, impatiently ; " for the purpose of 
making the good things of this world cheap and 
plenty ; so that the poor may be able to get at 
them as well as the rich." — " Talk till dooms- 
day," repHed Jackson, "you will never persuade 
me, that when the master manufacturer hits upon 
some new devise to improve his machinery, it 's 
with an eye to the good of any but himself." 

" Mayhaps not," replied Hopkins ; " but the 
fact is, that they can't do good to themselves 
without doing good to others also. I tell you, 
it 's in the nature of things ; for," added he, devout- 
ly raising his eyes, " there is One above who 
looks to the good of the poor as well as of the 
rich ; and if he puts it into the head of manu- 
facturers how to shorten labor and to cheapen 
goods, he does it for our advantage as well as 
theirs. Yes," added he, with a pious emphasis, 
" God Almighty, who made ' the sun to shine 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 139 

upon the just and the unjust/ is good to all ; and 
he created wind, and water, and steam, to work 
for the benefit of all, the poor as well as the 
rich." 

" Well, if it had pleased God," exclaimed 
Jackson, '^ to have given us food and clothing 
ready to our hand, as he has given us water to 
drink and air to breathe, without stir or trouble, 
we should have wanted neither work nor wages. 
The world would have gone on famously then," 
added he, chuckling at his bright idea. Hop- 
kins was not sorry to hear something new. 
There was some ingenuity in Jackson's ob- 
servation ; and, though Hopkins thought it 
could not be true, he knew not what objection 
to raise against it. He had recourse (as he 
commonly had in such a dilemma,) to scratch- 
ing his head ; and if the action did not call forth 
new ideas, it at least gave him time to reflect on 
w^iat he should say. " So one would think," at 
length replied he ; ^' but you may be sure God 
knows best what is good for us ; and, since it has 
not been his pleasure to give us food and cloth- 
ing gratis, as it were, you may be certain that it 
would not have been for our good. Why and 
wherefore is more than lean tell : perhaps," add- 
ed he, with more alacrity, a bright thought hav- 
ing crossed his mind, — '^ perhaps, because it 
would have made us all idle : and I am apt to 



140 MACHINERY; OR, 

think that would have led us to frequenting the 
public house. If beer and spirits had been as 
plenty as water, what drunkards we should have 
all been ! and then the broils that would have 
followed ! No, Jackson, it is better as it is : idle- 
ness is the parent of vice, you know." 

'^ Why, now you are not consistent," quoth 
Jackson : " if it is good for man to labor, why 
get machines to do the w^ork instead of us ?" 

" Not for the sake of being idle," replied Hop- 
kins ; " but because the less labor we bestow on 
one thing, the more we shall have to give to an- 
other ; and the less labor things cost, the cheap- 
er we shall buy them. Now, it is quite as im- 
portant for us to have things cheap as to have 
plenty of work ; for the wages of one week will 
buy as much of cheap goods as the wages of two 
weeks will of dear ones. And I have told you, 
over and over again, (but I cannot hammer it 
into your head,) that the way to make things 
cheap is to produce them by machinery. When 
wind, and water, and fire and steam do the work, 
the goods are sold so reasonably, that almost ev- 
ery one can afford to buy. You well know 
there 's a much greater demand for cheap than 
for dear goods ; and, in order to satisfy so great a 
demand, more and more must be made, and 
more hands taken in at -the factory ; till, in the 
end, many more come to be employed to man- 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 141 

age the machinery than there was before to do 
the work without it. And, when increase of em- 
ployment goes along with cheapness of produc- 
tion, you have every thing you can wish ; — 
more commodities, more work, and more com- 
fort and enjoyment within your reach." 

" And, pray, where did you pick up all this 
learning ? " inquired Jackson. ^' It 's surely never 
out of your own head." — " No, for a truth," 
replied Hopkins ; " my head has, however, been 
given to these matters for a long time past ; and 
I never missed gathering what I could from those 
who knew more than myself. I have learnt a 
good deal from talking with my landlord, who 
has a great knack at these things, and he gave 
me a little book, called ' The Working Man's 
Companion ; ' but small as it is, there 's a world 
of knowledge in it. I found it rather hard at 
first ; but he helped me on with it by an expla- 
nation now^ and then ; and it 's there I learnt all 
the good that comes of machinery, and the follv 
and wickedness of opposing it." 

" Well, I should like to see the book," said 
Jackson. — " Here it is," returned Hopkins, 
producing the volume on the results of machinery. 
" Come, I will read you a bit," continued he, 
turning over the leaves till he came to a place 
which he thought suited his purpose. " Here," 
said he, " they are talking of a poor ignorant 



142 MACHINERY; OR, 

people called the New Zealanders, who had no 
machinery whatever ; scarcely so much as a tool 
to work with. 

^' Page 31. ' The chief distinction between man 
in a rude, and man in a civilized state of society is, 
that the one wastes his force, whether natural or 
acquired ; the other economises, that is, saves it. 
The man in a rude state has very rude instruments ; 
he, therefore, wastes his force : the man in a civil- 
ized state has very perfect ones ; he, therefore 

economises it One of the chiefs of the 

people of New Zealand, who, from their inter- 
course with Englishmen, had learnt the value of 
tools, told Mr Marsden, a missionary, that his wood- 
en spades were all broken, and he had not an axe 
to make any more : — his canoes were all broken, 
and he had not a nail or a gimlet to mend them 
with : — his potatoe grounds were uncultivated, 
and he had not a hoe to break them up with : — 
and that, for want of cultivation, he and his peo- 
ple would have nothing to eat. This shows you 
the state of the people without tools 

" ' The New Zealanders hve exactly on the 
opposite side of our globe ; and, therefore, very 
seldom come near us ; but, when they do come, 
they are acute enough to perceive the advantages 
which machinery has conferred upon us : and 
the great distance, in point of comfort, between 
their state and ours, principally for the reason 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 143 

that they have no machinery, while we have a 
great deal. One of these poor men burst into 
tears when he saw a rope-walk, because he per- 
ceived the immense superiority which the process 
of spinning ropes gave us over his countrymen. 
Another of these people, and he was a shrewd 
and intelligent man, carried back to his country a 
small hand-mill for grinding corn, which he priz- 
ed as the greatest of all earthly possessions.' 

" Now," continued Hopkins, laying down his 
book, " you must know that Old England and 
New Zealand are much of a size ; and, while 
we have twenty-six millions of people, New Zea- 
land has only ten thousand ; that is, two thousand 
six hundred men in England to one in New Zea- 
land. And, moreover, one of us working people 
in England is better off by far than the chiefs of 
New Zealand ; — better fed, better clothed, and 
more comforts in every respect : and that be- 
cause they have not yet found out how to make 
wind, and water, and fire, and steam work for 
them ; and so they remain poor, half starved, half 
naked savages, living in huts, such as you would 
scarcely put a pig in. 

" And, do you know, Jackson, that, if you 
read the history of England, you will see that, 
once upon a time, (it 's ages ago ; before any 
factories were set up,) England was no better off 
than New Zealand ; so you see what we have 
gained by our machinery." 



I 

144 MACHINERY; OR, 

Jackson still looked discontented ; and Hop- 
kins confessed that his was a hard case, a very 
hard case ; '' But you cannot," added he, " say 
that the power-loom does an injury to the peo- 
ple at large. If the weaving is cheaper done by 
itj the goods are cheaper sold ; and all those who 
buy are gainers by it : you and I as well as oth- 
ers. You are always harping after the loss you 
make as a weaver, and never think of the bene- 
fit you receive as a consumer." 

" Much good will the cheap weaving do me 
here," cried Jackson, " when I am far away." 

'' I don't know for that," replied Hopkins ; 
'' go w4iere you will, the English manufactures 
will follow you ; especially in America : and 
there you would not be sorry to get them as low 
as you could." 

" All I know," grumbled Jackson, " is, that 
the power-loom has been the ruin of me here." 

" But when we talk of the good of the people 
and the good of the country," said Hopkins, em- 
phatically, " we must remember that there are 
others in the country besides yourself and your 
fellow weavers at the hand-loom. You are the 
only sufferers, w^hile the whole of the population 
are gainers. Now, I ask you, would it be fair to 
set aside the power-loom merely to benefit these 
few^, to the loss of millions of men ? It would be in- 
juring ten thousand, at least, for the good of one. 



CHEAP GOODS AND DEAR GOODS. 145 

Then, let me tell you, if you had not stuck so 
obstinately to your hand-loom, though losing 
ground by it every year, you might have turned 
your hand to something else, as many others 
have done. 1 have been told there are no less 
than twenty thousand journeymen silk weavers 
who were turned adrift, and are now working at 
the cotton factory at Manchester. One must 
take courage, man, and go along with the stream ; 
for we cannot stop it, do what we will. Many 
have tried hard at it by rioting and violence ; but 
what was the end of it ? The rioters were al- 
ways put down, sooner or later : some were 
hanged, others transported, and the improve- 
ments in machinery went on all the same." 

" They had their revenge, however, on the 
masters of the factories," said Jackson ; " for 
many a steam-engine and a factory has been de- 
stroyed in such riots. ^' 

" And where 's the good of that ? " cried Hop- 
kins : " why, it is burning your own house to set 
your neighbor's stables on fire I tor, when the fac 
tory is destroyed, the workmen are all turned 
adrift ; and what are they to do ? no one will 
employ them ; so, for one master ruined, there 
are perhaps five hundred of his men in the same 
predicament. Then take the people at large : 
the goods the factory made would become more 
scarce and dearer than before ; and they would 
10 



146 MACHINERi% ETC. 

suffer from this till the factory was rebuilt and 
placed again upon the old footing. So, after 
quarrelling and fighting, and being punished, 
(some by the law, others by their own folly,) you 
just return to the point from whence you set out. 
Can there be greater madness, than, when you 
want to live cheap, to destroy the very means of 
making things so ? Why, it is much of a piece 
with burning the stacks of corn to make bread 
cheaper. No, believe me, if you could show a ma- 
chine to be an evil, you only increase the evil by 
attempting to destroy it. Master manufacturers 
will make their goods at the cheapest rate : do 
what you will, you can't prevent it ; and I say, 
thank God for it : for the cheaper they make, 
the cheaper they sell ; and we are all benefited 
by that. But, since you choose to seek your for- 
tune elsewhere, why, I wish you success with all 
my heart ; a prosperous voyage, and good luck 
at the end of it." 

Upon this he shook Jackson cordially by the 
hand, and they took leave of each other ; Hop- 
kins fancying that his arguments had produced a 
great effect ; but Jackson was too much blinded 
by his prejudices, and the losses he had sustain- 
ed, for his mind to be open to conviction ; and, as 
he went away, he mumbled to himself, — '■ Ay, 
it 's fine talking ; but where 's the good of all these 
helps, when they do not help me to a single 
meal?" 



FOREIGN TRADE; 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 



One evening, when John returned from his 
work, he found his daughter Patty showing off a 
new silk gown to her mother. It was a present 
which her lover had just given her, for the ap- 
proaching wedding day. Patty's eyes, which 
had seldom beheld any thing so beautiful, shone 
with delight, as her mother admired it ; and her 
father gave her a hearty kiss, and said she would 
be as smart a bride as had ever been married in 
the village. " Ay, and it is a French silk, too, 
mother," exclaimed Patty. — " Why, as for that," 
replied her mother, " I don't see the more merit 
in its being French ; and I did not think, Patty, 
you were such a silly girl as to have all that non- 
sense in your head. No, indeed, it is bad 
enough for the great lady-folks to make such a 
fuss about French finery, so that they can't wear 
a bit of honest English riband. I don't like your 



148 FOREIGN TRADE ; OR, 

gown a bit the better for being French. No ; 
and I should have thought that your husband, 
that is to be, might have given you an Enghsh 
silk instead." 

Patty was not pleased that her mother should - 
find any fault with her new present, and her 
future husband ; so she said, she thought there 
was no harm in the gown being French, if Barton 
could afford to give it to her ; "and for my own 
wedding too," added she, with a blush. — " It 
is not that he can't afford it, child ; but don't you 
see the shame of an Englishman going to buy 
French silks, while his own countrymen are 
working so hard for their bread at the manufacto- 
ries at home ? Why, they can get nobody to 
buy their English goods now, and the poor work- 
men will soon have to go to the parish or starve ; 
and all because the fine ladies must be forever 
sending over to foreign parts for their lace and 
silks, and all that." 

Poor Patty was sadly put out : but her moth- 
er did not perceive it ; and she went on abusing 
the gown, which she had admired so much until 
she had learned that it was French. " No, no,'' 
continued she, " I shall be ashamed if my girl is 
not married in an English gown, and tell Barton 
so," she added, pushing aside the smart present. 

Patty tried to put in a word, but in vain. 
" Why, there is our girl Nancy, who works for a 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 149 

riband weaver at Nottingham, your fatlier wrote 
to ask whether she could get in one of her 
youngest sisters ; but she sent back word that 
trade was very slack, and that they were more 
likely to turn off hands than to take any more in : 
that while so many ribands came from France 
one could expect no better ; and that it was well 
if we did not see her home again for want of 
work. It is a crying sin," added the dame, indig- 
nantly; " and I should be glad to know whether 
my Nancy can't make as good a riband as any of 
the French girls ? I 'm sure the one she sent me 
was as pretty as any one need wish to look on." 
John readily agreed that the English could make 
these things just as well at home, as others could 
in foreign countries. " Nay, and even if we did 
not," said the wife, " I think the great people 
ought to give a turn to their own country folks, 
and encourage home manufactures, instead of 
having all their finery made by foreign hands, 
and sent to them from foreign parts. Why, I 
have heard Lady Charlotte's maid, up at the 
castle, say, there 's no end to the loads of silks, 
and laces, and ribands, and flowers, her Lady- 
ship gets from beyond seas ; and, instead of 
being ashamed of it, she is proud to wear them, 
and to show them off to her acquaintances." 

Now Tom, who was a good sharp lad, and 
given to be waggish, said, — "I wish that the 



150 foreIign trade ; OR, 

French mounseers, instead of sending so much 
frippery for the rich, would send some good 
bread and cheese for us poor folks." — " And 
so they would, if you would pay for it," replied 
his father ; " for they are not such fools as to 
send us their goods for nothing." — = " Well, but 
how are the goods paid for? " asked Tom; *' for 
uncle Bob, who has been over the sea to foreign 
lands, tells me, that when he goes to an alehouse 
in those outlandish parts, and has to pay for a 
draught of beer, they won't take our English 
money ? " Uncle Bob, although he had not yet 
joined in the talk, had been in the room all the 
while ; for he had come up from Liverpool on 
purpose to be present at Patty's wedding. He 
now pulled off his spectacles, and laying down 
the newspaper, which he had been quietly read- 
ing in a corner, said, — " That is true, but you 
should not say an alehouse, Tom, for there is 
little enough of ale or beer to be had there : they 
give you nothing but wine at their public houses. 
And, sure enough, they would take neither pence 
nor shillings, nor pounds either (if I had had them.) 
The French will be paid in their own money, 
which, they call sols and francs ; and the Span- 
iards will have their own dollars." — " And how 
do you manage to pay for what you buy there ?" 
asked John. — "Why, I get my English money 
changed into the money of the country where I 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 151 

happen to be. That is easy enough for the 
little I want ; but it would never do to pay for 
all the goods that come over here from foreign 
parts." 

This puzzled John not a little, when suddenly 
a wiser thought than usual came across him : — 
" If they won't take the money," said he, "per- 
haps they will take the money's worth, and that 
is all one." — '' What do you mean by the mon- 
ey's worth, father ? " — " Why, something that 's 
worth as much as the money. They will take 
goods, for instance, instead of money. Ay, for 
now I remember, when I went over to Leeds to 
see your brother that works in the cloth factory, 
there was such a power of broadcloth piled up, 
of all sorts and fashions ; there were some with 
mighty fine patterns ; and I thought them rath- 
er queer for us Englishmen to wear ; but Dick 
said that all those pieces were for foreign parts ; 
and that if they did not please the fancy of for- 
eigners, who liked showy patterns, they would not 
take our goods. ' You may guess,' added Dick, 
' by the piles you see of them yonder, how much 
they like these.' And he told me they had orders 
for many more, so that they should be wanting 
more hands ; and that if I sent one of the boys 
next spring, he thought they could find work for 
him. Now, don't you see, Tom, this is the way 
we pay for French goods. We pay them in 



152 FOREIGN TRADE ; OR, 

kind, as it were ; goods for goods ; and the goods 
being worth as much as the money we should 
have paid for them, it is all one, as if we had paid 
in money." — " Why, it is much Hke my chang- 
iffg my top again for Harry Fairburn's marbles," 
said Tom. " And do they send us as much 
goods as we send them ? " 

" Why, as for that," replied his father, scratch- 
ing his head, while he was thinking of an answer, 
" as broadcloth is much more bulky than laces or 
silks, we must send over larger cargoes than we 
receive in return. But, mind you, not more 
costly. No, no, we are sharper than that comes 
to. We should never be such fools as to send 
to foreigners what was worth more than they 
sent us. We give money's worth for money's 
worth." 

*' Then, if they work for us as much as we 
work them," said Tom, '' methinks it 's tit for tat ; 
and there is no one turned out of work, neither 
here nor there." 

" Why, have not you just heard that your sis- 
ter Nancy is like to be turned off at Nottingham, 
because they will wear so many French rib- 
ands ? " 

" Ay, but," said Tom archly, who could not 
help thinking of his own prospect, " but have 
not you said that I am likely to be taken in at 
Leeds, because foreigners wear our English 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 153 

cloths ? So you see, father, it is as broad as it is 
long." 

The father was puzzled, and he could think of 
nothing to reply to Tom, who had certainly the 
best of the argument. While he remained half 
grumbling at being set down by so young a lad, 
uncle Bob exclaimed, " The boy is right enough. 
Where is the sense of crying down French 
silks ? why, it is just crying down our own 
broadcloth." — Patty's face brightened up, and 
she thought that Barton was right after all, 
and that she should wear her gay gown at the 
wedding. Uncle Bob continued, — ^' If we 
won't wear any more foreign merchandise, why 
foreigners won't wear any more of ours ; for 
we shan't send ours over for nothing, that is 
quite certain." — ''So much the better," mut- 
tered John, " let us each wear our own manu- 
factures." 

" Better for Nancy, but w^orse for Dick and 
Tom too," cried uncle Bob ; " for, if there are 
no French silks and ribands to pay for, there 
will be no cloth made to pay them with, for look 
ye, cloth is the money we pay with. I say, and 
I '11 maintain it too, that every piece of silk, and 
not silk only, but lace, or cambric, or wine, or 
what not, that comes from France, or Spain, or 
Germany, or even from as far off as the Indies, 
East or West (for Bob was fond of talking of the 



154 FOREIGN TRADE: OR, 

many countries he had seen) ; I say, every piece 
of foreign goods that comes over to England, em- 
ploys just as many of our workmen as if they 
made it themselves. What care our workmen 
whether they are making ribands and silks for 
their own countryfolk, or broadcloth for foreign- 
ers ? What they want is to be employed, and 
that is all. — Why, it is as clear as broad day ; 
though it never struck me before, till the lad hit 
on it." 

John was not much pleased to find his brother 
take part with Tom ; however, he could not but 
think they seemed to be in the right, and that 
foreign trade did neither good nor harm. But 
they had not got at the v/hole truth yet, as the 
second part of the story will show. 

SECOND PART. 

John had pondered all these things a good 
deal in his mind, at a loss what to think or what 
to believe, when one day his landlord looked in 
upon him to talk over farming matters. Before 
the squire went away, John took courage to ask 
him about what was uppermost in his mind, and 
said, — " May I be so bold as to ask your honor 
a question ?" The landlord nodded good natur- 
edly. " Why, then, my brother Bob and my son 
Tom, but a bit of a chap as he is, have been ar- 
guing with me that' we neither gain nor lose by 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 155 

trading with foreign parts, and wearing foreign 
manufactures." Then observing the landlord 
smile, ''you may think, perhaps," added he, 
twirling his hat in his hands, " that I ought to be 
minding my own concerns, and not troubling ray 
head about what is above my capacity." 

" I am very far from thinking," said the land- 
lord, " that it is not your business to reflect and 
consider what is or what is not good for your 
country. It is not only the right but the duty of 
every free-born Englishman to do so to the best 
of his abilities. This, thank God, is not a land 
in which we are afraid of the people learning to 
distinguish between right and wrong, even in 
matters v hich concern the welfare of the coun- 
try." 

John was pleased : he held up his head and 
seemed to think all the better of himself for be- 
ing counted among those who had a right to think 
about the welfare of the country. "I am sure," 
thought he, " if I had informed myself to the best 
of my ability before I went to the fairy, I should 
never have been such a fool as to have made her 
turn every thing upside down, as I did twice 
running." Then, addressing the landlord, he 
said, — " Indeed, your honor 's right ; for, in my 
mind, there is more mischief done for want of 
knowing better than there is from sheer wicked- 



156 FOREIGN TRADE; OR, 

"I am quite of your opinion," replied the land- 
lord ; ^' but, as for Bob and young Tom, there, I 
think they are somewhat mistaken in supposing 
that the country neither loses nor gains by for- 
eign trade." 

" Ay, I told you so," said John exultingly, 
addressing himself to his brother and the boy. 

" Then I hope your honor will set us right," 
replied Bob. — ''Why," said the landlord, "I 
maintain that, when two countries trade freely 
with each other, they are both gainers." — 
" Hear what his honor says now," cried Bob : 
" no loss on either side, but both gainers: — all 
prizes, and no blanks ! " 

" This requires some explanation," said the 
landlord, " which I will try to give you. For- 
eigners send over to us such goods as they can 
make or produce cheaper and better than we 
can ; therefore, when we buy those goods, we get 
them cheaper or better than w^e could have made 
them ourselves." 

" There 's no denying that," cried Bob, " for 
if they were not either cheaper or better than we 
can make, we should not buy them." Tom 
chuckled in a corner, though he did not dare 
open his lips." 

'•' Now, for instance," continued the landlord, 
observing the piece of silk for Patty's wedding 
gown, which was laid upon the table j " they 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 157 

have the art of making silks cheaper in France 
than we have in England. You may buy a silk 
in France for the value of two shillings a yard, 
which would cost you three in England. Well, 
then, every yard of French silk sold in England 
(supposing there were no duty) would be a shil- 
ling saved to those who buy it." 

" And a shilling saved is a shilhng gained," 
said Bob. " Then, she who buys a French in- 
stead of an English silk gown (supposing it took 
ten yards) would have ten shillings left in her 
pocket, would she not ?" 

" Certainly ; and so, if many French gowns 
were bought, there would be many a ten shil- 
lings saved. This money," continued the land- 
lord, '' might be laid by till wanted ; or it might 
be spent immediately, in cotton^ gowns, perhaps, 
for the children, or shoes and stockings, or pots 
and pans ; in short, whatever article may chance 
to be wanted ; but, whatever it be, it will liave 
employed people to produce it ; and there is so 
much the more work for the laboring classes. 
While, on the other hand, if an English silk gown 
had been bought, the ten shillings saved would 
have been spent, and nothing more could have 
been purchased." — *' Then it is very clear," said 
Bob, " that, if people wear the dear English silk 
gowns instead of the cheaper French ones, there 
is less work for our work people." 



158 FOREIGN TRADE; OR, 

'' You are quite right," answered the landlord ; 
" and it is just the same with every other article 
that is purchased from abroad as it is with silk. 
So long as we, get goods cheaper we make a sav- 
ing, and that saving sets more hands to work." 

" Ay," said John, '•' that 's all very well for us ; 
but your honor told us that the French were 
gainers by the trade as well as ourselves : now, 
it seems to me, that what we gain must be their 
loss." 

a Why so," cried the landlord. " Take an ex- 
ample or two : — We have more Iron in the 
bowels of the earth, here, than they have in 
France ; we are therefore more used to work it, 
and do it better than they do. Then we know 
how to construct steam-engines better ; so that 
the French can purchase wTought iron and steam- 
engines cheaper and better of us than they can 
make them at home. If, then, we send them iron 
and steam-engines in exchatige for their silks, 
they are gainers as well as we." 

" But I thought," said John, " that we sent 
the French people broadcloths in exchange for 
their silk and laces." 

" No ; the broad-cloths, I believe," said the 
landlord, " are exported to Spain, Portugal, and 
other countries. But the name of the country is 
of no consequence, any more than the name of 
the goods exchanged ; the principle is the same. 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 159 

Buy the goods wherever they are to be had 
cheapest and the best." 

" To be sure," cried Dame Hopkins ; " that 
is just what we do ourselves, husband : often is 
the time that I trudge over to the market town 
to buy things a trifle cheaper than I can get 
them in the village." — "Yes, and when you 
get there," cried Bob, " you go to the best shop, 
without caring whether its master be friend or 
foe." 

" But," said John, " We don't go over to 
France to choose the goods as we do at market. 
It is they send them over to us ; and they 
may chance to send us such goods as we can 
make as well and as cheap at home : in a word, 
goods that we don't want from them." 

" I can assure you," replied the landlord, 
" that merchants often do go to foreign coun- 
tries for the very purpose of choosing such goods 
as will be most wanted in England. And when 
they don't go, they write, which answers much 
the same purpose." — " But how can they tell 
what is wanted?" cried Bob, "for, one wants 
one thing, another wants another ; but, to say 
what most people want, must be a hard matter 
to make out." — " Far from it," said the land- 
lord ; " there is as sure a means of knowing it as 
if the different sorts of goods had each a voice, 
and one cried out, ' I am the most wanted ;' 



160 FOREIGN TRADE ; OR, 

another, ' I am next ;' and another, ' I not at all.'" 
— This made them all stare ; and they hstened 
with great attention to learn what this voice 
could be. — "It is neither more nor less than 
the price of the goods," said the landlord. 
"The more goods are wanted the better price 
they will fetch ; so it is the price which I call 
their voice ; and, and moreover, a voice that al- 
ways speaks the truth." — This set them all 
laughing. " Now," continued the landlord, as 
soon as they had had their laugh out, " we cannot 
expect that the French or any other foreigners 
should send over such goods as we want, just 
for the pleasure of obliging us : their view is to 
make money." — "As every dealer's is and 
ought to be," interrupted Bob, " when it is done 
above board ; that is, fairly and honestly ; so we 
need bear them no grudge for that." 

" Very true," continued the landlord ; " they 
seek their own. interest, not ours; and send over 
the goods that will fetch the best price, because 
those will give them the greatest profit." 

" If they don't seek our interest, they find it 
nevertheless," said Bob ; " for the goods which 
will fetch the best price, are just those which 
we most want. So, what suits them to sell, suits 
us to buy : well, to be sure, that is cleverly con- 
trived." 

" No wonder that it is clever," replied the 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 161 

landlord ; " for it is in the nature of things ; 
which means that it is so ordained by the Au- 
thor of Nature, an all-wise and beneficent Prov- 
idence. 

'^ Well, you see, my good friends," continued 
the landlord, "that foreign trade — that is, trad- 
ing with foreign countries — is advantageous to 
every country engaged in it ; for, what is true of 
one, is true of all : and when we buy a piece of 
foreign goods, be it what it may, or come from 
whence it will, we encourage the British manu- 
facture thereby, just as much as if we bought the 
piece of goods at Leeds or Manchester." 

" Ay, and a little more, too," cried Bob, " ac- 
cording to your honor's reckoning ; for you have 
forgot to take into the account the money saved 
by buying the cheaper goods, which saving is 
laid out in something else, and so sets more hands 
to work," 

" That is true," cried the landlord ; " I was 
falling into your argument, my honest tar, that 
there was neither loss nor gain in foreign trade ; 
but I am glad to find you steer so clear of error 
that you can become my pilot. We are agreed 
then, that there is gain on both sides ; and I hope, 
John, that you begin to think so too." 

" Why," said John, to be sure your honor 
must know best ; and, if all you say be true, 
11 



162 FOREIGN TRADE; OR, 

(as no doubt it is,) why I can't but say it must 
be so." 

" Well," continued the landlord, " but there is 
another advantage in foreign trade, which I have 
not yet mentioned. There are somethings, such 
as good wine, that it would be impossible for us to 
make, because our climate is not hot enough to 
cultivate vineyards ; so, if we did not get it from 
other countries, we should be obliged to go 
without." 

'^ Oh ! for the matter of that,'' cried John, 
'• foreign wines will never come within our reach : 
we poor folk should not be the better for them, 
even if they paid no duty at all." 

" But you are sometimes the better for foreign 
spirits, John, I take it," said the landlord. 

" And sometimes the worse, too," said his wife. 
" However, I have no right to complain ; for 
that is only once in a way." 

"Well, to say nothing of the wine and the 
spirits," continued the landlord, addressing him- 
self to the wife, '' you, good dame, would not 
have a spoonful of sugar to sweeten your tea, 
without foreign trade. Nor could you give me a 
pinch of snufF," added he, holding out his hand 
to John, who first tapped his box and then open- 
ing it, respectfully offered it to his landlord. — 
*' And as for the English silks," said Bob, " why 
we should have had none- to dispute about with- 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 163 

out foreign trade ; for, though we can spin and 
weave silk, we can't breed silkworms in our cH- 
mate." — *' Nor could you smoke your pipe," 
said the landlord ; '• for tobacco is not raised in 
England any more than silk." — " But I have 
heard some talk," said John, "of passing a law 
to let them grow tobacco in Ireland." 

" If the law of the land should allow them, I 
doubt whether the law of nature would," re- 
plied the landlord ; " for the warm climate of 
Virginia, in America, whence it comes, is much 
more favorable to its growth ; and, if they at- 
tempt to raise it in Ireland, I doubt but that it 
will cost them dearer, and not be so good." -— 
'^ Why, then," said John, " it would be wiser to 
make a law to prevent instead of to allow them 
to grow it." 

" The best way would be to pass no law, either 
for or against," rephed the landlord. •' Let men 
have their own way, and plant and sow, buy and 
sell, just where and how they hke ; they will 
soon find out what will answer best. If they can 
raise tobacco in Ireland as cheap and as good as 
in America, they will do it ; and if they cannot, 
they will let it alone." 

" Ay," cried Bob, " a man has a sharper 
look out for his own interest than any one else 
can have for him." 

^' So you see, my friends," continued the land^ 



164 FOREIGN TRADE ; OR, 

lord, " foreign trade has two advantages ; for it 
not only procures things better and cheaper, but 
things which our climate renders it impossible 
for us to produce at home ; such as wine, sugar, 
tobacco, plums, currants, rice, spices, cotton, 
silks, and other things without number." 

" Oh, then," cried the good woman, "I could 
not even treat my children with a plum pudding 
at Christmas without foreign trade ; for there 's 
no making it without plums and spices." 

Patty smiled, and cast a look upon her wedding 
gown, which her mother observing, said, — 
" Well, child, take it up and make it up. I 
should be loth to say or think ill of it, after all the 
squire has told us," - 

THIRD PART. 

" Well, after all," said John, '' it 's lucky for 
us they won't take our English money for their 
goods in foreign countries ; for, if we sent them 
money instead of goods, it might be quite another 
story." — " And why not send them money ? " 
inquired the landlord. '' Why, your honor 's 
joking now," said John, with a smile and a shrug : 
" you know it would not encourage our manufac- 
tures ; for we do not manufacture money : we 
get it from South America, as I have heard." — 
J* And have you heard," asked the landlord, " how 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 165 

we pay for it ? " — " Why no, I can't say I 
have," said John, ruminating. " Pay for money ! 
why it 's Mke giving them the money back again ; 
it can't be so : and yet it must be paid some- 
how." — "It 's sure enough," cried Bob, '^ the 
Americans will not send it us for nothing : they 
would no more do that than the French would 
send as their silks for nothing : and yet, how to 
pay for money I can't well guess. We cannot 
give gold for gold ; that would be like sending 
coals to Newcastle." 

^' If we paid for the money in cash," said John, 
*' it would be just sending them back what they 
had sent us. And there would be all the ex- 
pense of sending it across the ocean and back 
again, just for nothing at all." 

" Besides, I doubt their taking it back," said 
Bob ; '' for they want anything there rather than 
money." — "True," said the landlord ; "they 
are all so busy digging for gold and silver there, 
that they have no time to manufacture goods ; 
so, it is manufactured goods which they want." 

^- Then we pay for money with manufactured 
goods," said John : " that seems very odd to us, 
who are so used to do just the contrary, and pay 
for goods with money." — " And what do the 
Americans do ? " said the landlord. — " They 
give us the money in return for our goods," re- 
plied John. 



166 FOREIGN TRADE ; OR, 

'' Why, father," cried Tom, " methinks that's 
no more nor less than buying our goods." 

'' Sure enough," cried Bob, "they buy our 
goods with gold, and we buy their gold with 
goods." 

" Now," said the landlord, " Supposing that 
you sent money to France to pay for their silks 
and laces, you would want more gold from Amer- 
ica, and you must manufacture more goods to pay 
for that gold." 

" Ah, so it is," cried John, as the truth sud- 
denly came across his mind ; " and it 's all one 
whether we send the goods to America to pay 
for the gold, or to France to pay for the silks." 

" In both cases," continued the landlord, " the 
laboring manufacturer will have employment. 
Thus, you see, my friends, work in one country 
is sure to produce work in another country, pro- 
vided a free trade — that is, liberty to exchange 
goods — be allowed. But, though this advan- 
tage will be generE^l, I do not mean to say that it 
will be without exception : some manufactures 
may occasionally suffer. If we import French 
silks and French china, we shall make less silk 
and less china at home ; but then, other manu- 
factures will flourish in proportion as these fail ; 
o that, if workmen are turned off in the one, 
they may find employment in the other." 

" Ay, but," observed John, " it's no such easy 



THE WEDDING GOWN. 167 

matter to turn one's band from one sort of work 
to another." 

" That 's very true," rephed the landlord ; 
" and many are the poor who suffer from being 
obliged to make sucli a change. This world is 
not perfect, as we all well know ; but il is im- 
proving ; and a free foreign trade would do much 
towards increasing the industry, wealth, and com- 
forts of the poor ; for, I trust you are now satisfi- 
ed, that the country which deals with foreign 
nations will employ considerably more laborers 
than those which produce and manufacture only 
for themselves." 

The landlord now took his leave ; and John 
confessed that he had explained it all so clearly, 
that he had been quite brought over to his way 
of thinking. Patty had understood so far as re- 
lated to her wedding gown, which she now took 
up, and skipped away in great glee to have it 
made up. 



THE CORN TRADE; 



THE PRICE OF BREAD. 



John Hopkins was walking with farmer Stubbs 
over his farm one day, examining the crops. 
They passed through a field of wheat in w^hich 
the scarlet poppies were nearly as plentiful as the 
ears of corn. " Methinks, Master Stubbs," said 
John, ^'this field will scarcely pay you the labor 
it has cost you ; you will get but a poor penny- 
worth out of it ; and I '11 venture to say, you 
must have put a good pennyworth into it, to 
make it yield even the little it does, seeing it 's 
such a bad soil.'' 

" I 'm not such a fool as that comes to, neither," 
returned the farmer. '' Though I may not 
have served my time at book -keeping, I know 
how to reckon up the goings out and the com- 
ings in ; ay, and to give a shrewd guess w^hat 
they are like to be before I sow my crop ; and 
if I did not see a fair chance of the field 



THE CORN TRADE, ETC. 169 

paying its expenses, ay, and a profit to boot, why, 
I should not hav£ sown it. It is true, corn does 
not fetch so good a price as it once did, but it is 
good enough yet to make even this pitiful bit of 
soil give me a profit." 

'^ Ah ! but," says John ; " you have some 
beautiful corn fields on the sunny side of the hill, 
with the stream at the bottom. That's a fine 
soil and a fine aspect, and those are crops it does 
one's heart good to look at, and will pay you 
well, and make up for the poverty of this here 
field, and so one with another you make a fair 
profit ; but if you were to sow this field alone, I 
question whether you would get anything by 
it." 

" There you are mistaken," rephed Stubbs ; 
" for if I did not make anything by it in corn, I 
should lay it down in grass ; or if it was not good 
enough for that, I should plant it." 

"But how can you tell," said Hopkins, 
" whether you make anything by this very field 
or not ? for you send your corn to market in 
the lump, without reckoning which field it comes 
from." 

" It 's a farmer's business," replied Stubbs, 
" if he means to thrive in the world, to find out 
what answers and what don't. I know how ma- 
ny bushels of corn this same field gives me, and 
how much I sell it for : then, on the other side, 



170 THE CORN TRADE ; OR, 

I reckon the labor, and the manure, and the seed 
corn, in a word, all that the crop cost me; and 
if I did not find that I got a profit — mind ye, I 
do not mean such a profit as the crops t 'other 
side of the hill give me, but a decent profit — 
for such a soil, this field would be a corn-field no 
more." 

" Well," said John, with a sigh, " it 's ha^'d 
that we poor folk are forced to pay so much for 
our bread, that you farmers may make a profit on 
such a miserable bit of soil as this." 

" Why, it 's not I that fix the market price," 
retorted Stubbs. " I must sell my corn for what 
it will fetch, cheap or dear, or I should not be 
able to carry on the outgoings of the farm ; for 
I've no store of money on hand as our landlord 
has, who may keep his crops back when the 
price is low, until the market rises. Then I 
should be glad to know, how you would be the 
better for this field not being sown ? for suppos- 
ing this field, and all other fields in the country 
that had no better soil, were laid down in grass, 
why there would be much less corn in the mar- 
kets (for there 's a good number of such fields in 
the land, I can tell you) ; and you know well 
enough what follows a scarcity of corn at mar- 
ket, Hopkins ?" 

" Why, a rise of price," answered Hop- 
kins. 



THE PRICE OF BREAD. 171 

*' So, then, you see, man, you are all in the 
wrong," exclaimed Stubbs, exultingly, " to think 
that my raising corn on poor land does you any 
harm. Why, it 's all for your good, John ; for 
you see that if I and others did not do so, corn 
would rise, and bread would be dearer." 

'^ Not quite so sure of that, neither. Master 
Stubbs," replied John, demurely. '' You may 
think it bold in me, who am but a poor man, and 
no farmer, to venture to argue with you, who 
know so much about it. But, you must know" 
that I have had a deal of talk of late with the 
squire, (who is your landlord as well as mine,) 
about foreign trade ; and, if 1 could but tell you 
all he said, Master Stubbs, you would be quite 
in a wonderment to hear the good foreign trade 
does to the country. And brother Bob, who 
has been so much in foreign parts, was all of one 
mind with his honor. Nay, it was so clear, that 
even my boy Tom understood it: and, though I 
tried all I could to argue against them, they 
brought me round at last." 

" Clear as it may be, I think it has turned 
your head, Hopkins," replied Stubbs. " I should 
be glad to know what foreign trade can have to 
do with my raising corn on poor land." — ^' Why, 
don't you see," replied John, "if we could get 
our corn from foreign parts, where it is cheaper 
than it is here, we should be better off?" 



172 THE CORN TRADE ; OR, 

" Oh, that 's what you are ^fter," cried Stubbs, 
with a shrug : " and so you would ruin the farm- 
ers of your own country, would you, to make the 
fortunes of your outlandish French jackanapes. 
Well, I thought better of you than that comes 
to." — '^ Don't you fly off in such a huff. Mas- 
ter Stubbs," said John. " God knows, I have 
no wish to ruin you or any other farmer ; nor 
was I for caring about making the fortune of for- 
eigners : what I was thinking of, w^as, how to 
get bread cheapest for my own children : and 
every poor man has a right to think about that : 
and, what 's more, it is his duty, too." — " Well ; 
but you will not persuade me that the squire told 
you that it was good for the country to get corn 
from foreign parts, unless it be in times of scarc- 
ity, when the price is very high ; and then, you 
know, the law allows it ; for it don't hurt the 
farmer. But, as for making a free corn trade at 
all times, as some folks talk of, why, our land- 
lord knows his interest too well to dream of such 
a thing." 

" And why should not the poor look to their 
own interest as well as the rich ? " said Hop- 
kins ; " and if corn coming from foreign parts 
would make bread cheaper, why should they 
not say that the law of the land ought to allow 
it, and have an eye to their good as well as that 
of the landholder ? " — '' You may think and you 



THE PRICE OP BREAD. 173 

may say what you please," cried Stubbs ; '• but 
let me tell you, that as long as the landholders 
make the laws, they will not be such fools as to 
make a law to undo themselves. Ask a man to 
cut his own throat? why it 's sheer nonsense." — 
" Well, I 've a better opinion of the landholders 
than you," replied Hopkins. " Take our land- 
lord, for example. It 's true, he did not say any 
thing about corn." — " No, I was sure enough 
of that," interrupted Stubbs. — " But he told us," 
continued John, " that whenever we could get 
anything from abroad cheaper than we could 
make it at home, it was for the good of the 
country that we should get it from abroad. I 
can't go over all his arguments, but they were 
as clear as broad day." — " It may be so, for 
aught I know," said Stubbs, " with manufactured 
goods, their French silks and frippery, that's 
made with hands ; but we don't make corn, we 
grow it." — " Well, but though the squire did 
not just speak of corn, he made no difference 
between things that are grown and things that are 
made ; for he talked of tobacco, and currants, and 
raisins, and loads of other things, the growth of 
the soil: and I am sure he would have said as 
much of corn, if it had but come into my head to 
have asked him." — " Nay, nay," retorted Stubbs, 
shaking his head with an incredulous look, " he 
has too good a head for that." — "I know he has 



174 THE CORN TRADE; OR, 

a good head," replied Hopkins ; " for he not on- 
ly understands these matters, himself, but he 
knows how to make us poor unlettered folks un- 
derstand them too. But then, Master Stubbs, 
I '11 warrant his heart is as sound as his head : 
and if he thought it was for the welfare of the 
country that the corn trade should be free, and 
that we poor folks would fare better for it, why 
he would give it up manfully ; and never mind 
it's hurting himself a bit." 

" He 's free to do as he likes," said Stubbs ; 
'' but let me tell him, he must not expect me to 
pay him such a rent as I do now, if every for- 
eign vessel that chose to bring their trash of corn 
into our ports were free of our markets. No, no, 
as soon as my lease was out, (and that is next 
Michaelmas come two years), I should say, 
' You may take the farm upon your own hands, 
OP let it me at a lower rent, for I have been los- 
ing, instead of gaining a livelihood ever since the 
corn trade has been free.' " — " Well, then you 
need not be in such a taking. Master Stubbs ; for, 
let the worst come to the worst, you can but be 
a loser for a couple of years. No farmer could 
be a loser beyond the term of his lease ; for then 
he would strike a new bargain. Besides, I am 
given to think, that, if the trade were free, there 
would be such an outcry among the farmers, that 
the landlords would make them some amends 



THE PRICE OF BREAD. 175 

even during the run of the lease." — *' No, no, 
they will not be over ready to come down before 
they must," cried Stubbs. '^They would know 
their loss would be forever and aye ; for they 
would never oet such rents for their farms again 
— no, never ; at least, as long as the trade was 
free." — " And if once it was," cried John, it's 
my mind it would be for ever and aye : for, when 
the poor know what it is to have bread cheap 
and plenty, they won't put up with dearness and 
scarcity." — " And pray at what price do you 
think you would have corn, if the trade were 
free ? " cried Stubbs ; " for half what you pay 
now, perhaps ; but you're quite mistaken. Corn 
costs land and labor, wherever it be grown ; and 
I should be glad to know where there 's farmers 
who understand the raising it better than we do 
here ; for I 've always heard there 's no farming 
to be compared to that of Old England." — 
" That may be true," replied John, '' but yet I've 
always heard that foreign corn was cheaper than 
that we grow at home." — ^' Then," said Stubbs, 
" it must be worse than ours, for the best farmers 
ought to raise the best crops ; you can't deny 
that?"— "Why it may, audit may not be," 
cried John thoughtfully. "If foreigners should 
have a better soil, or greater plenty of land, so that 
their rent don't run so high, or a finer climate, 
they may be able to grow corn as good as ours, 



176 THE CORN TRADE; OR, 

and yet cheaper, though they do not understand 
farming so well as we do. " — " Well, but 
granting that in some parts corn may be a 
trifle cheaper than in England, you forget that 
there 's the freight to pay ; and the further it 
comes from, the more that costs. Then there 's 
sea risks : the ship may be wrecked, and the car- 
go lost ; and even when it arrives in port, often- 
times the sea water gets in and it rots ; and 
though it may not be good enough to bring to 
market, it must be paid for in the main ; for, 
d' ye see, they won't bring over corn for nothing, 
and what they lose in one cargo must be made 
up in the price of another: so, one way or an- 
other, I '11 venture to say, the trade being open 
would scarcely make any difference in the price." 
" Well, all I can say," replied Hopkins, " is, 
that if it makes but little difference to me who 
buy corn, it will make but little difference to you 
who sell it ; so you need not set up such an out- 
cry against it. But I will tell you honestly, that 
in my mind it would make a great difference ; for 
I know that in America corn is very cheap, and 
for this plain reason. America is a very large 
place, with but few people in it : so they have as 
much land as they choose, and they sow corn on 
the choice soils. Indeed, they say the soil is so 
good, that it is well nigh all choice ; and 
wants no manure, and only just scratching 



THE PRICE OF BREAD. 177 

over with the plough. So they may well afford 
to sell their corn cheap, when it costs them so 
little to grow it ; besides, they are ready enough 
to sell it, being so few to eat it at home." 

" Now that 's what comes of talking of what 
you don't understand," exclaimed Stubbs : — 
*' few people in America, say you ? why, I have 
been told there 's ten times as many there as there 
is in Old England ; and you know there 's no 
lack of folks here." John was at first puzzled at 
this assertion ; but, after scratching his head, and 
burning the matter in his mind, he said, — ''May- 
hap, Master Stubbs, America may be a hundred 
times bigger than England ; and then, you know, 
it would be much thinner of people, though they 
were ten times our number. I know you have 
got a book of maps ; so let us give a look into it 
when we come to the house." They did so, and 
were both astonished to find that America was 
not only one hundred, but many hundred, times 
larger than England. " But, look ye, what a 
w^ay off it is," cried Stubbs ; " and what a heavy 
charge there must be to bring corn from such a 
distance." — '^ It 's all across sea," said Hopkins, 
pointing to the Atlantic Ocean ; " and freight, 
aboard ship costs but httle. Then, when it gets 
to England, you see, it comes up one of these 
great rivers, to London, or to Bristol, or to Liv- 
erpool. Besides," continued John, '' without go- 
12 



178 THE CORN TRADE ; OR, 

ing SO far as America, I 've heard say, that 
there 's many countries nearer at hand, where 
corn is much more plentiful, and cheaper, than 
with us. In Poland, where the poor folks have 
been fighting so hard lately, they have abun- 
dance of corn, and are ready to send it over to us 
w^henever the law allows it." 

" Ay, provided we pay them a good price for 
it," cried Stubbs. 

" But, what 's a good price to them, who grow 
it cheap, is a low price to us, who grow it dear," 
replied Hopkins. " Think how it would do one'§ 
heart good to get corn as low as forty shillings a 
quarter, and the quartern loaf at five-pence ? why, 
it would be a great saving to you. Master Stubbs, 
with your large family, who eat as much as ever 
they like." — " Save a penny, and lose a pound," 
replied Stubbs, sulkily. — " Well, but when you 
get a new lease," said John, ''you will save the 
penny without losing the pound." 

" That's true enough," replied Stubbs, bright- 
ening up. *' But still," added he, after a little 
thought, "look ye, Hopkins, — if bread was so 
cheap, it would never pay me to raise corn on 
poor soils, as I do now." 

"To be sure," answered Hopkins, " the field 
we passed through must be laid down in grass : 
but you would get a fair profit, still, on your corn 
fields by the river-side." 



THE PRICE OF BREAD. 179 

" Fine talking, indeed," cried Stubbs, angrily : 
" as if it was a mere nothing to lay down land in 
grass, when you hav^e been laying loads of dang 
on it for years past, and lime and what not, to 
better the soil, and make it produce corn ! All 
that 's to be wasted, is it ? Why, you never 
dream the money that. is gone that way !" 

" There 's no help for that," replied Hopkins : 
" if the trade be made free, that money is clear 
gone away forever : and, if you went on raising 
corn on poor soils, to sell at a loss, I don't see 
how that would mend the matter." — " That's 
why I don't want the trade to be thrown open,'' 
cried Stubbs. 

'' But 1 am talking of what would happen if 
the trade be thrown open, whether you will or 
no," said Hopkins. 

" Well," said Stubbs ; '' but though the land- 
lords would.be obliged to lower their rents, I 
doubt much whether they would bring them 
down so low as to clear us farmers of any loss 
by the trade being throw open." — " Why, you 
are always at liberty not to take the farm," said 
John. — ^' Ay ; but one would rather make a 
sacrifice than part with house and home that 
one has been used to ; nor can you part with it 
without a great loss : besides, how is one to get 
another farm on better terms, if the landlords 
agree to hold out against the farmers ? " — " Why, 



180 THE CORN TRADE; OR, 

then the farmers must hold out against the land- 
lords : and what are they to do, if they cannot let 
their farms ? If they won't allow farmers a fair 
profit, why, they will look ahout them for some 
better means of getting a livelihood." — "Ay, 
but,'' replied the farmer, " it 's no easy matter to 
turn your hand to anything, especially at my time 
of life ; so 1 must put up with what I canget, 
rather tlian seek to change my condition." — 
" Well, but farmers, if they cannot change, they 
would at least bring up their children to some 
other calling ; and when the landlords found they 
had a hard matter to let their farms, they would 
be obliged to come round at last." 

" But," said Stubbs, " suppose you were to 
get all the corn from those cheap countries' you 
talk of, and there breaks out a war, why, they 
would send us no more ; and we should be in a 
pretty pickle then." 

" If we went to war with one country, ' we 
should get the corn from another," said John : 
" we should hardly fall out with all the corn 
countries at once." 

" I can't answer for that," replied Stubbs, " as 
the fashion is in these revolutionary times." — • 
" I don't know what you mean by the fashion 
of the times, Master Stubbs : here 's well ni^h 
twenty good years we have had peace in Old 
England/' said John : " and I have heard say^ 



THE PRICE OF BREAD. 181 

no one can recollect so long a peace before. 
There has been fighting abroad, and plenty, it is 
true ; but then, it has not been, as they tell me, 
so much one nation coming to blows with anoth- 
er, as it has been the people rising up against 
their rulers when they ruled them with an iron 
rod ; then they wrested it out of their hands, and 
knocked them down with it. But, take my 
word for it, war or no war, those who have got 
corn to sell, will contrive to get it over to a good 
market. Besides, Master Stubbs, T was never 
for having all our corn from abroad : grow as 
much as you will here, on good land ; for then it 
will cost you little to raise ; and you can afford 
to sell it as cheap as we can get it from abroad.'' 
— '^ Ay ; but you are forgetting the high rent 
that 's paid for good soil, w^hich makes the corn 
stand you in as much as that grown on a bad 
soil." 

" Nay," replied John ; " it is you who are 
forgetting that, next Michaelmas two years, your 
rent will be lowered if the trade be thrown open ; 
so that you may get your profit and we may eat 
our bread cheap ; and all the loss will fall on the 
landlords, who are best able to bear it. Besides, 
the poor soils will not he fallow, though, you do 
not sow them with corn : they will be turned to 
grass, and feed cattle, which you may make 
a pretty penny by : and so, meat, and milk, and 
12* 



183 THE CORN TRADE ; OR, 

butter, and cheese, would be more plentiful 
and cheaper, as well as bread ; and our little 
ones would stand some chance of getting a mess 
of milk and bread for their breakfasts, and we 
might more often get a bit of meat in our pot for 
dinner. Oh, those would be brave times, Stubbs, 
for us poor folk ! " 

" Well, you may say Vv^hat you will," cried 
Stubbs ; *' but I can't but have a fellow feeling 
for the landlords, and would rather by half give 
them a good turn than your foreign corn-deal- 
ers." — "Give a good turn to the poor of your 
owncountry, Master Stubbs ; it 's they want it 
most ; and if, by so doing, we chance to serve 
our neighbors, why, so much the better, though 
they are but foreigners. If they have more corn 
than they want, is not it better that we should 
have it, than that it should be wasted ? " — " Oh, 
as for that matter," cried Stubbs, '' they will take 
care not to grow more corn than they have a 
market for. If they have no sale for it abroad, 
they will raise no more than they want at home. 
They would not be such fools as to grow corn to 
have it lie on their hands and rot. Corn is not 
grown without expense, and a heavy one, too, 
on the best of soils ; so no man in his senses 
would grow more than he has a fair chance of 
selling, and with a fair profit besides. No, no, 
John : wait till home crops fail, and then you 
may get foreign corn, and welcome." 



THE PRICE OF BREAD. 183 

*' But," said John, archly, ^' have not you just 
been saying, that, in the corn countries, they will 
not grow more than they want at home, if they 
have no regular sale for it abroad ; so, if we wait 
till there comes a scarcity with us, they will not 
have any to part with." — "Oh, leave them 
alone for that," cried Stubbs ; " when the price 
rises high, they would sooner take it out of their 
own mouths than miss the making so good a bar- 
gain." — " But, think ye what a price must be 
paid to tempt them to half starve themselves, in 
order to let us have the corn. While, if we got 
some from them regularly every year, why, they 
would grow it regularly for our market, and we 
should have no extra price to pay. Then, if 
there came a scarcity, being such good custom- 
ers, they would let us have a larger supply than 
usual, without raising the price out of all reason." 
— '^ Well, but they might have a scarcity as well 
as us," rephed Stubbs ; " and then what 's to be 
done ? Our corn fields^ that have been laid down 
in grass, cannot be ploughed up in a hurry." — 
" Nor would there be any need of it," answered 
Hopkins; ''for, if the trade were thrown open, 
we should not deal with one corn country only, 
but with a dozen, mayhap ; and it 's hard if their 
crops all fail the same year. If the season is 
bad in this part of the world, there 's a good 
chance of its being fair in America, which lies 



184 THE CORN TRADE ; OR, 

quite another way. Look, what a deal of land 
there is here," cried Hopkins, pointing to the 
map of the world : " why, England is but a nut- 
shell to it all : and why must you be for having 
all the corn we eat grown in this little spot ? " 

'' Well, it don't sound well of you to say any 
thing to the disparagement of Old England," 
cried Stubbs. " If it is but small, it 's a tight 
little island, and able to withstand many a greater 
country when put to it. And why should we 
not be able to grow corn for the people that live 
in it, as well as other countries do ? " — '' Why 
just because we are a great people, living in a 
little country ; there 's more of us than the land 
can feed." — "But the more people there is, 
the more hands there is to work, and so the 
more corn they can grow," said Stubbs. — 
" Ay," replied Hopkins, " but the country grows 
no bigger for being more thickly peopled ; and 
it 's land we want to raise corn upon." — " Nay, 
nay," cried Stubbs, •' you cannot say there 's 
any want of land, when so much lies waste in 
commons and such like." — " But it 's w^ant of 
good land that I complain of ; such soils as you 
may grow corn on cheap, as they do in corn 
countries. If there was but half the number of 
people to feed, perhaps corn enough might be 
grown in the country to feed them : but the 
English people are a great nation, as great as any 



THE PRICE OF BREAD. 185 

in all this map, I '11 be bold to say. Where is 
there such a trading country as we a^e ? and 
why ? because we have so many manufactures : 
but then we must have people to work at the 
manufactures, besides those that work in the 
fields ; and both must be fed. Why, for her 
size, England has perhaps twice as many people 
as most other countries ; and yet you won't let 
us have more bread than we can grow at home ? 
I tell you it is half starving us : first, because 
there 's not enough ; and next, because you grow 
the corn on bad soils, and must sell it dear to 
make it answer." 

" Why, Hopkins," replied the farmer, ^'you 
are now boasting of the great population of this lit- 
tle island, and forgetting that it was but the other 
day you were complaining of it ; and saying, that 
the misery of the poor came from there being 
too many people." — " And so I do still," cried 
John, " so long as you will not let us have bread 
to eat, cheap, and plenty ; that is, as cheap as 
we might get it if the corn' trade were free. If 
there 's too many people, it 's not for want of 
room to live in, and stir about as much as they 
will ; but there 's too many people, because 
there 's not food enough for all. Let us be free 
to have corn from all parts as cheap as it is to be 
had, and then, mayhap, there may be enough for 
all. There never can be too many people when 



186 THE CORN TRADE ; ETC. 

there 's wherewithal to maintain tliem ; there 
cannot be too many happy people : but when 
they are pinched for food, and suffer in body and 
mind, they can do no good to themselves or to 
others either, and the country would be all the 
better whhout them." 



THE EXD. 



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